Carr’s reinstates dividend as farming firm avoids coronavirus damage
Agriculture firm Carr’s Group today confirmed that it would pay shareholders a single combined dividend in October, saying the coronavirus pandemic had had “no material financial impact” on business.
In an update, the London-listed company said that trading remained in line with expectations for the whole year.
In April, the company, which makes agricultural equipment and supplies for livestock, elected to suspend its dividend until the impact of the coronavirus became clear.
At the time, Carr’s half-year profit had fallen 16 per cent amid what it called “significant headwinds” for the agricultural sector.
However, today it said that it would pay a single interim dividend of 2.25 pence per share on 2 October 2020, in line with last year’s payout.
In the update, which covers the 19-week period up to 11 July, Carr’s said that its agriculture division was trading ahead of expectations.
In the UK, it said, “farmers are maintaining normal livestock operations and a marginally higher demand for feeds, supplements and fuels has enhanced revenues”.
However in the US, lower cattle prices as a result of Covid-19 have adversely impacted sales of supplements.
In its engineering division, Carr’s said some projects had been affected by some temporary interruption to nuclear and defence work following the introduction of revised working practices due to the pandemic.
The division has also been impacted by the oil price decline, which it said had led to a reduction in oil and gas investment.
Analysts at Shore Capital Markets said that they “took comfort” in the firm’s strong financial position, although they expected “uncertainty” to remain across the group.
The firm did not give any indication as to future guidance, and so Shore’s said that it continued to expect yearly profit before tax of £14.2m across the group.