BT: suspends dividend payments, shares drop

(CercleFinance.com) - BT shares are tumbling 9% on Thursday after Britain's largest wireless carrier announced 2019/20 results in line with expectations, but also that it plans to suspend its dividends.


The telecom group reported adjusted Ebitda of 7.9 billion pounds for the full year to 31 March, down 3%, on revenue that also fell by 3% to 22.8 billion pounds.

While investors were braced for just a simple cut, BT said its board has decided that it was more prudent to suspend the 2019/20 final dividend and all dividends for 2020/21.

"The outcome is worse than expected and will draw questions on the near-to-medium term outlook," analysts at UBS commented.

Given the uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic, BT said that it could not provide any financial outlook statement for 2020/21, resulting in a 9.4% drop in its share price on the London Stock Exchange.

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