Sector: Food and Drug Retailers

Whitbread's dividend policy is to grow the dividend broadly in line with earnings across the cycle. An interim dividend of 32.7 pence per share (H1 FY19: 32.7p), flat versus last year, amounting to £44 million, was declared by the Board on 21 October 2019. The dividend will be paid on 13 December 2019 to all shareholders on the register at the close of business on 8 November 2019. Shareholders will again be offered the option to participate in a dividend re-investment plan.

The WH Smith Board has a progressive dividend policy and expects that over time dividends would be broadly covered twice by earnings calculated on a normalised tax basis. The Board has proposed a final dividend of 41.0p per share, an increase of 8% on the prior year, giving a total ordinary dividend per share of 58.2p, an 8% increase on the prior year.

Bellway have announced that their growth in earnings has enabled the board to recommend a 5.3% increase in the final dividend to 100.0p per share (2018 - 95.0p), increasing the proposed total dividend for the year by 5.2% to 150.4p per share (2018 - 143.0p). 

The Walker Greenbank Board has declared an interim dividend of 0.52p per share (H1 2018: 0.69p) with the previous year's dividend pay-out ratio expected to be maintained for the current financial year. The interim dividend will be payable on 22 November 2019 to shareholders on the register as at 25 October 2019.

As a result of the progress made with their strategy, the Morses Club Board is delighted to declare an interim dividend of 2.6p per share 

The N Brown Group Plc Board is declaring an interim dividend of 2.83p per share which is flat on last year's interim dividend.

Volution paid an interim dividend of 1.60 pence per share in May 2019. On the basis of their results and financial position, the Volution Board has proposed a final dividend of 3.30 pence per share, giving a total dividend for the financial year of 4.90 pence (2018: 4.44 pence per share), an increase of 10.4% on the previous year.

Despite the underlying profit before tax being down year-on-year, the Board is proposing to increase the interim dividend by 0.05p (2.9%) to 1.80p, which is in line with our stated dividend policy of cover being between 1.5 and 2.0 times underlying earnings per share. 

PHP announces the payment of its fourth quarterly interim dividend in 2019 of 1.4 pence per ordinary share of 12.5 pence each (Ordinary Shares). The dividend will comprise a Property Income Distribution (PID) of 0.5 pence per share and an ordinary dividend of 0.9 pence per share. The Company will be offering a scrip alternative with this dividend.

The Board has declared an interim dividend of 7.8p (2018: 17.9p), which will be payable on 22 November 2019 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 11 October 2019.