The Dividend Monitor, which analyses data on all UK dividends provided by Exchange Data International, shows that UK companies returned £15bn to investors in the first quarter of the year, which is more than 10 per cent higher than the same period in 2010.
The report goes on to estimate that shareholders will receive a total of £64.2bn in dividend payments during the whole of 2011, which is 13.6 per cent more than during the previous 12 months.
Dividends were boosted last year by BP’s full £1.8bn payout and other companies rushing to beat the 50p tax rate but the biggest contributor by far to the bumper returns in the first quarter of this year is International Power, which contributed more than a tenth of the total, at £1.6bn.
Chief Executive of Capita Registrars, Charles Cryer, said: "2011 has got off to a very strong start, and underlying dividend growth will accelerate from here. Even though there are still uncertainties in the wider economy, the dividend recovery is very broadly based, indicating companies are much more confident in their financial position."
Capita believes that FTSE 100 dividends will show brisker growth from the second quarter onwards and in a sign of growing corporate confidence, 126 companies out of 156, which paid dividends were increasing or reinstating them, while only 40 cut or cancelled them. These figures contrast sharply with those for 2009, when the majority of companies reduced the amount of cash they returned to shareholders.
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( 3 / 204 )Chancellor George Osborne and Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, are set for a row with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over its plans for a funding package aimed at tackling the Eurozone crisis.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Head of the IMF, said that Britain should be part of a more coherent plan to deal with government debt and criticised piecemeal attempts to resolve individual countries' debt problems, which critics believe leads to instability and undermines investor confidence in Europe.
Mr Osborne retorted that resolving the debt problems of Eurozone countries is a matter for the Eurozone and not for the broader EU, which includes nations with their own currencies, such as the UK. And his views on Eurozone debt are mirrored by the Bank of England.
In fact, he would like to go further and repeal Article 122 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which was used to coerce European member states into bailing out Ireland and Greece. He has now stated that the UK taxpayer will not be expected to help fund further bailouts after helping Portugal but this can only be certain if Article 122 is amended.
However, the Chancellor has backed the IMF’s scrutiny of the Government’s deficit reduction programme.
"This is not something we should in any way be nervous about as a country. It is something we should positively welcome," Osborne said. He also denied that an excessive deficit reduction was to blame for the economic woes in other European countries and instead cited Spain as a new example of how credible budget reduction measures could help rebuild market confidence.
At a time when 72 per cent of the total cost of UK regulation now originates from Brussels and the overall cost of red tape to businesses in the EU is €124 billion a year, it might be interesting to ponder just how European UK plc feels.
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( 2.9 / 15 )Consumer Focus, the statutory watchdog for energy consumers, is warning that thousands of small businesses could be hit by huge energy bills after being unknowingly under-charged by their suppliers for years. And their figures for last year show that 40 per cent of all complaints received from small businesses about their energy bills are about back-dated billing and warned that the problem could get worse.
Audrey Gallacher, head of energy at Consumer Focus, said: “Getting a bill for thousands of pounds out of the blue is a nightmare scenario for any small business, especially in these difficult times. With suppliers able to go back six years, supplier mistakes can add up to big debts that could potentially cripple some firms.”
And David Caro, Environment and Energy Policy Chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses said: “Small businesses have suffered unfair and non-transparent contract terms from uncaring energy suppliers for a long time. Although a micro business’ behaviour and consumption is very similar to that of a customer in the domestic market, they are not covered by the same protections and safeguards, which makes small businesses even more vulnerable. There is a need for a radical shake-up of the practice of estimated billing, especially when the energy suppliers are in the wrong. A large unexpected energy bill, particularly in these difficult trading times, can be as serious as the last nail in the coffin for a small firm, which is then forced out of business through no fault of its own.”
Consumer Focus is urging businesses to take steps to avoid unexpected bills by ensuring they are paying the right amount. They can easily find they are paying too little, for example when they move into new premises that have multiple gas or electricity meters, when meters are read incorrectly or estimated bills are too low. The guideline would appear to be, if in doubt, check your meter(s) and contact your supplier immediately before bills get out of hand.
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( 3.1 / 212 )Wednesdays seem to be almost as pivotal as Mondays, if the ways in which they’re described are anything to go by. We’ve had ‘Black Wednesdays’, ‘Woeful Wednesdays’ and ‘Worse Off Wednesdays’ but no-one seems to have come up with a description fitting a Wednesday on which there was mainly good news. Maybe it’s the lack of alliteration or maybe it’s because, as a nation, we prefer to delight in the gloomier side of life.
Whichever, there is no denying that yesterday was a Wednesday of pleasant surprises and improvements, albeit slight. For example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that unemployment had fallen in the first quarter of the year to 2.48 million, the first drop since last Autumn.
Yesterday also saw a surprise drop in the rate of inflation to 4 per cent, which has eased the pressure on the Bank of England to raise the base interest rate. And in its latest global financial stability report, which was broadly positive, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described the UK’s spending cuts as ‘necessary’ in a bid to bring down the deficit.
And yet, most reports on the news have trampled over the good in their haste to get to the bad. Articles are littered with ‘buts’ and the flip side of the positive. The full story must be published, of course, but why not present the facts instead of the individual’s spin on them?
Of course, these small improvements are no reason to start cracking open the champagne just yet. There is a long way to go. As Employment Minister Chris Grayling said, while welcoming the good news: “… there are challenges ahead and our priority is to continue to support the economy, by reducing the deficit and putting in place measures to encourage growth in the private sector."
But wouldn’t it be nice, just once, to focus on the good instead of the bad and move forward with a feeling of optimism?
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( 3 / 52 )Companies which offer non-essentials – the discretionary spend arena – have been the hardest hit in the first quarter of 2011 according to a report issued by corporate recovery experts, Begbies Traynor.
In their Red Flag Alert report, which monitors UK firms facing financial difficulties, they say that there has been a 15 per cent rise in the number of companies facing “significant” or “critical” distress in the first quarter of this year compared with a year ago.
Of course, it could be argued that anything outside food, drink and warmth is non-essential but the hardest hit areas appear to have been leisure and the service industries. Compared with the first quarter of 2010, the level of combined distress (Significant and Critical) in the Bar & Restaurant sector was up by 68 per cent; businesses in the Leisure & Culture sector were faced with a 60 per cent rise and the Sports & Recreation sector show a 23 per cent rise.
Ric Traynor, Executive Chairman of Begbies Traynor Group said: “…it seems likely that a fall in consumer confidence and spending power driven by anticipated job losses lies at the core of the leisure sector's troubles."
The other sector seen to be experiencing a major rise in the number of companies in trouble is professional services, which is up by 61 per cent on the same quarter last year.
According to the report, companies with high fixed costs are being hardest hit and a stale property and corporate deals market hasn’t helped. According to Traynor, such companies “are finding the current market conditions increasingly difficult as their revenues fail to recover and the scope for further cost reductions becomes more limited."
In uncertain times, with looming redundancies across the board, it would appear that people are being careful where they spend – and save – their money.
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