Beleaguered British trains and bus operator Stagecoach (SGC) has slashed its full year dividend despite posting a recovery in reported profits for the year to 28 April.
The company has also run-up an £85.6m hit from the failure of the East Coast rail contract.
‘I am disappointed to be reporting significant exceptional costs in respect of Virgin Trains East Coast but I am pleased that there is now clarity for both customers and shareholders,’ said chief executive Martin Griffiths on Thursday.
The dividend has been ‘rebased’ to 7.7p per share for the year under review, down from 11.9p, although this sort of drastic action was largely anticipated by investors. Even so, the shares still fall more than 5% to 127.1p.
The stock was trading at more than 400p just three years ago.
UK markets are off to a slow start on Thursday with investors coming to terms with the impact of the trade war moves being made by the US and China, and other factors such as Brexit.
The FTSE 100 index slips around 12 points lower to 7,609.66, with recently spun-out insurer Quilter (QLT) leading the Footsie fallers, down 1.6% at 149.68p.
OIL GIANT MAKE ELECTRIC CARS PLAY
Oil giant BP (BP.) has clearly got its eye on the future as it buys UK-based electric vehicle charging company Chargemaster.
BP had said earlier this year that it expects autonomous electric vehicles to become available in the early 2020s and forecast 100-fold growth in electric vehicles by 2040.
The deal comes at an interesting time for Chargemaster, which had been mulling its own stock market flotation.
Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed and it perhaps understandably doesn’t do much for BP’s share price, which nudge 0.6% lower at 578.6p, given the FTSE 100 company’s £116bn market value.
British pub operator Greene King (GNK) sees its shares slump 6.5% to 597.4p in early trade on Thursday after the company posted a fall in operating profits to £373.1m.
The FTSE 250 company has been hurt by softer consumer spending and adverse weather at the start of the year.
PHARMA DEAL BATS OFF BLOCKING TACTICS
A group of Takeda Pharmaceutical shareholders failed in their attempt to win support to block the $62bn acquisition of London-listed Shire (SHP) at the Japanese group’s annual general meeting on Thursday.
That lifts Shire’s share price by around 2.3% to £41.895.
Oilfield services provider John Wood (WG.) saw revenue grow in the first half as higher oil prices buoyed demand for its equipment and services.
That news was confirmed in a trading update ahead of its interim results close period, while net debt for the six months to 30 June has been confirmed at $1.7bn.
Gold prices inched up on Thursday, but hovered close to an over six-month low hit in the previous session, as the dollar failed to build on overnight gains amid conflicting signals from Washington while the US-China trade row deepened.
US oil prices dipped away from three-and-a-half year highs on Thursday amid high output from Russia, the US and Saudi Arabia, although unplanned supply disruptions elsewhere and record demand stemmed a bigger decline.
British American Tobacco (BATS), British Land (BLND), Burberry (BRBY) and British Airways-owner International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) are among the FTSE 100 stocks that will trade without entitlement to their next dividend pay-out on Thursday.
That trims 6.18 points off the FTSE 100, according to calculations by Reuters.
