DIVIDEND
Our dividend policy is based on the growth in trading profits taking into account our investment and acquisition plans and the distribution requirements that we have as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). We have seen a substantial growth in trading profits in recent years and the Board has taken the opportunity this year to increase the interim dividend by 40% to 6.80p per share (2015: 4.86p).
The intention is to grow the dividend on a covered trading profit basis, with a target of maintaining cover of at least 1.3 times adjusted underlying earnings per share. The interim dividend will be paid on 7 February 2017 as a REIT Property Income Distribution to shareholders on the register at 12 January 2017.
