Dunedin maintains interim dividend

24th Jun 2009 15:04

Dunedin Smaller Companies Inv Trust maintained its interim dividend despite reporting a drop in revenue per share.The board has declared an unchanged interim dividend of 1.85p per share, though revenue return per share dropped from 2.25p to 1.39p in the six months ended 30 April.Revenue return for the full year is also expected to be lower than last year, but the group said it is prepared to utilise its revenue reserves of 7.45p per share with the objective of maintaining dividend payments to shareholders in the medium term. "Equity markets remained volatile in the period under review and the overall downtrend continued until the middle of March. From that point through to the end of April, however, markets staged a remarkable recovery in the face of bleak economic news," said the group."Investors regained some appetite for riskier assets in anticipation of economic recovery and this was reflected in a sharp rally in the share prices of smaller companies, particularly the more speculative stocks," it added.Dunedin said it maintained an essentially ungeared position over the period and held a net cash position at 30 April 2009.