HOTC.L Share News (HOTC)

(Sharecast News) - Premium chocolatier Hotel Chocolat said on Thursday that it had decided to cancel its interim dividend.
The company, which raised ?22m last month in a share placing to combat a decline in footfall due to the Covid-19 outbreak, will no longer pay the interim dividend that was due on 15 April.

"It is more prudent to retain the cash in the business for deployment in service of long-term growth," it said, adding that the board plans to reinstate dividend payments when it is appropriate to do so.

Co-founder and chief executive Angus Thirlwell said: "We are committed to keeping the Hotel Chocolat family together during these challenging times. We also remain confident in the company's longer-term growth plans in the UK, the USA and Japan, and want to ensure that we maximise the resources available to the group to leverage these opportunities, as well as others which may develop when we all emerge from the current crisis.

"My co-founder, Peter Harris, and I are confident that, by forgoing our own dividend payments on this occasion, the company's long-term outlook will be even brighter."