Dividends
The Board has not declared an interim dividend for 2017. The Board's appraisal of the appropriateness of dividend payments takes into account the Group's underlying earnings, cash flows and financial leverage, together with the requirement to maintain an appropriate level of dividend cover and the prevailing market outlook. Although the Board is committed to resuming dividend payments as soon as it believes it prudent to do so, in assessing whether we should resume dividend payments in respect of 2017, we have been mindful of the fact that our forecasts for 2017 anticipate a reduction in earnings, a free cash outflow and an increase in net debt. In these circumstances, the Board believes that it would not be prudent to resume dividend payments at the current juncture.
