BRITISH & AMERICAN INVESTMENT
TRUST PLC
COVID-19 UPDATE -
ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS AND DIVIDEND
1. Announcement of Results
On 26th March, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) extended
the deadline for the announcement of listed company results from
four months to six months after year end, in response to the
government's work-from-home and social distancing guidelines to
combat the Coronavirus pandemic. This deadline extension is
designed to assist companies to put in place measures to reduce as
much as possible employee exposure to the virus and to minimise
onward transmission as the peak of the epidemic approaches over the
coming weeks, placing maximum pressure on hospitals and the
NHS.
As a small company based in London with auditors based in Cheltenham, we welcome the FCA's deadline
extension which will allow us to reduce employee travel/office
attendance and professional adviser contact/workload over the
coming weeks.
Accordingly, we will postpone the announcement of our 2019
financial year results from end April to end June. This later
date will also enable us to report to shareholders in a fuller and
more informed way when more is known about the progression and
effects of the epidemic and the longevity of the government's
social and financial response to the epidemic. By that time,
markets generally could be expected to have stabilised from their
currently dislocated state and the longer term impact of the
epidemic on our portfolio and prospects should be clearer .
As a corollary, the date of our AGM will also be delayed. The
FCA is currently considering changes to the rules surrounding the
timing and method of holding AGMs in these exceptional
circumstances and we understand that further information on this
will be made available in due course.
2. Dividend
In response to government pressure, major banks and insurance
companies have cancelled already announced 2019 dividend payments
and suspended planned 2020 payments. This is to
conserve resources to assist in the government's emergency funding
programmes to support companies and individuals through the
Coronavirus crisis. In addition, many other leading companies
have similarly cancelled or suspended their dividend payments to
conserve resources, particularly in those industries with
operations or receipts badly disrupted by the epidemic's effects,
including transport, leisure, hospitality, manufacturing and
utilities.
This systemic reduction in dividend payments will have a
significant, if hopefully short-term, effect on those savings
institutions relying on investment income generation for their
operations, including pension funds, assurance and other investment
vehicles, such as ourselves.
Accordingly, we intend not to recommend the payment of a final
dividend for the 2019 financial year and we propose to review 2020
dividends as the year progresses.
As previously announced in our 2019 interim statement and 2018
annual report, the continuation of our progressive dividend policy,
which had been in place for over twenty years, would depend on a
return in the share price of our major investment, Geron
Corporation, to levels closer to those seen in 2018 to enable us to
generate distributable income internally within our group. To
date this has not occurred and now, in addition, the generation of
reliable dividend income from external sources has been placed in
doubt for the foreseeable future for the reasons noted above.
In 2019, we paid a half-year interim dividend on our ordinary
shares of 2.70 pence, representing a
yield of approximately 5.6 percent on the ordinary share price at
the time of announcement and of approximately 6.5 percent averaged
over the year as a whole.
It is our intention to resume our dividend payments as soon as
possible, as and when circumstances permit, potentially through ad
hoc interim payments not necessarily on our normal dividend
timetable, and eventually to catch up when and if possible on
witheld or reduced payments.
End