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Impax Environmental Markets steps up to two dividend payments for 2020 financial year

Published: 07:58 31 Jul 2020 BST

Dividend pot

Impax Environmental Markets PLC (LON:IEX) revealed on Thursday that it is to pay a first interim dividend for the 2020 financial year of 1.3p per ordinary share, and said it is the intention of its board to declare a final, or second interim, dividend towards the end of the first quarter of 2021.

In a statement released after the London market close, IEX said that, in order to be equitable to all shareholders, and following a similar consideration of paying last year's (single) dividend as an interim rather than a later final, the board has decided that henceforth it will declare an interim dividend at the half-year stage, with a second dividend payable after the year-end.

READ: Impax Environmental to ask permission to issue more shares as demand soars

It said this also reflects the pattern of the company's expected dividend receipts, as well as providing shareholders the advantage of receiving part of their dividend earlier in the year.

The asset manager said its board recognises that, as the company continues to expand its capital base and issue shares, there is a dilutive effect on the earnings per share if a single dividend is paid annually on all shares in issue at the record date, irrespective of when those shares were issued.

It added: “This acts to the benefit of those shares which come onto the register towards the end of the period in which the underlying earnings were accumulated, since the earnings available to those shares which have been in issue throughout are diluted by those which have been on the register for only part of the period.

“It remains the Board's policy to pay out substantially all earnings by way of dividend, the quantum of which is affected both by the level of dividends received by the Company and by the number of shares in issue “It is the Board's current expectation that the total dividend for the current year will be lower than the 3p per share paid in respect of the 2018 and 2019 financial years.”

The interim dividend is payable on August 28, 2020, to shareholders who appear on the register on August 7, 2020, with an ex-dividend date of August 6, 2020.

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