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Property investment company CLS stuck with plans to pay a final dividend even as the Covid-19 crisis had led to a shortfall in rent from its tenants.
The company had concluded, subject to approval at the AGM, that it remained appropriate to pay the final dividend of 5.05 pence per share, the company said.
'By close on 7 April 2020, we had received 84% of contractual rents due or 87% taking into account those tenants we are supporting by switching to monthly rents,' the company said. That was below the 96% of rents collected in the same period last year.
As expected, vacancy had increased to 4.6% from 4% seen 31 December 2019 but remained below the company's targeted level of 5%. The increase was due to 'completed refurbishments, now available to let, and acquired vacancy in the UK, and some recent lease expiries in France,' the company said.
'We are engaging with tenants whose businesses are impacted by short-term cash flow issues and, as a consequence, we are in advanced discussions with a further 5% of our tenants by rent around payment options and asset management initiatives,' it added.
At 9:05am: (LON:CLI) Cls Holdings PLC share price was +5.25p at 229.25p