Melrose Industries has shelved a planned payout to shareholders because of concerns caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Reporting a narrower annual annual loss, the industrial turnaround company said it was holding on to its capital with markets in an uneasy position. Melrose paid out £729m to shareholders in 2021 and at the time said it had scope to return further “significant” funds in 2022.
“We were clear at the time that, due to lingering uncertainty in the market, we had been conservative in determining the amount of the return in order to ensure a strong balance sheet in the event of further volatility,” Chairman Justin Dowley said.
“However, the very recent and tragic events unfolding in Ukraine, with the knock on effects for the world markets that at this stage are uncertain and unquantifiable, have led the board to keep the timing of this return under review at present.”
Dowley said this was a very conservative position and that the board would make the payout as quickly as possible once the conflict is resolved.
Melrose’s pretax loss for the year to the end of December shrank to £446m from £565m a year earlier as revenue fell to £6.88bn from £7.13bn. The FTSE 100 group swung to a £197m adjusted pretax profit from a £27m loss.
The company increased its final dividend by one-third to 1p a share taking the annual payout to 1.75p a share.
