Midwich restarts dividends as trading beats expectations

(Sharecast News) - Midwich Group restarted dividends after trading beat forecasts and the company predicted annual profit well ahead of expectations.



The distributor of audio-visual equipment said though a number of its markets are likely to be subdued for some time, revenue rose and cash generation was strong so far in 2020. In a statement for its annual general meeting, Midwich declared a special dividend of 3p a share and said it expected to pay interim and final dividends for the year to the end of December.

Chairman Andrew Herbert said: "Despite further significant lockdowns in early 2021, trading in the first four months of the year has been ahead of the board's expectations, and significantly ahead of the comparative period last year. Should vaccine programmes continue to progress successfully in the group's key markets, the board now expects that revenue and profit for the full year will be comfortably ahead of its original expectations."

Midwich distributes products made by Sony, Samsung, Sonos and other electricals companies to commercial and educational customers in the UK and Ireland, Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. Its shares rose 7.2% to 498.55p at 10:24 BST.

The AIM-traded company posted record revenue of £711.8m for 2020 in March but adjusted pretax profit more than halved to £14.2m from £31.2m because of Covid-19 disruption. Midwich paid no dividend in 2020 to preserve cash and because it took government support, which has now ceased.