The Fisher (James) & Sons board believe the Group has weathered the initial storm of Covid-19 and have seen a significant improvement in the financial headroom on their committed banking facilities. Global economies are slowly recovering, and the price of oil has partially recovered from the low point in April. They operate in diverse markets and have a wide geographic spread so whilst certain parts of business have been seriously impacted by Covid-19, other parts of business have been resilient.
With this backdrop the Board has declared an interim dividend of 8.0 pence per share (2019: 11.3p), reflecting the reduction in underlying profit before taxation in the period. The dividend will be paid on 6 November 2020 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 2 October 2020.
Other financial highlights include:
Key priority remains the safety and wellbeing of employees and customers
Swift response to Covid-19 to reduce costs, optimise cash flow and protect liquidity
Resilient trading performance
£30m reduction in debt
