Talk Talk slashes its 2017 final dividend to cut debt

Dividends

Dividends of £150m paid in the year (FY16: £135m) comprised the final dividend for FY16 10.58p and the interim dividend for FY17 of 5.29p.

The Board is committed to returning the business to revenue and customer base growth, improving cash generation and reducing leverage, and in this context has declared a Final dividend for FY17 of 5.0p (FY16: 10.58p), taking the total dividend for the year to 10.29p (FY16: 15.87p).  For FY18 the Board expect to declare an Interim cash dividend of 2.5p (FY17: 5.29p) and a Final cash dividend of 5.0p (FY17: 5.0p) taking the total cash dividend for the year to 7.5p (FY17: 10.29p). Looking beyond FY18, the Board expects to resume dividend growth once the business returns to earnings growth and has reduced leverage towards the Group's Net Debt/Headline EBITDA target of 2.0x.

The Final dividend for FY17 will be paid on 4^th August 2017, subject to approval at the AGM on 19^th July 2017 for shareholders on the register 7^th July 2017 (ex-dividend 6^th July 2017).