Panther Securities Regulatory News (PNS)

12 Feb 2009 14:29

12 February 2009 Panther Securities PLC Dividend announcement ("Panther", "Company" or "the Group")

Further to our recent trading updates and following discussions by the Board of Directors, the Company announces that, until further notice, it will declare and pay its dividends on a quarterly basis.

The Directors consider that this demonstrates the confidence the Board has in Panther's future trading prospects in the current climate.

In the Chairman's statement for the six months ended 30 June 2008, the Directors anticipated that the final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2008 would be at least 6p per share. Accordingly, the Company now declares a quarterly interim dividend of 3p per share to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 6 March 2009, which will be paid on 8 April 2009. The Company's ordinary shares will become ex-dividend on 4 March 2009.

The final dividend will be paid, as in prior years, at the end of June 2009 or thereabouts and the Directors still anticipate that this will be recommended at 3p (together with the quarterly interim dividend of 3p per share representing the 6p per share anticipated by the Directors at the time of the announcement of the results for the six months ended 30 June 2008).

The Board of Directors would also like to point out that since the Company started paying dividends on its entire ordinary share capital in 1983, the Company has paid a dividend every year with a continually rising trend (after excluding special dividends) and the anticipated dividend for the year ended 31 December 2008 is a multiple of 54 times the dividend paid in 1983 (after adjusting for the eight-for-one bonus issue in 1994).

For further information: Andrew Perloff, Panther Securities plc: 020 7278 8011 Simon Peters, Panther Securities plc: 020 7278 8011