The cardboard packaging company reported strong figures for the past year but expressed caution about the futureDS Smith shares took a pulping today as the FTSE 100’s champion cardboard box producer said it had cancelled its full-year dividend. The decision, following the eleventh-hour withdrawal of the payment of its interim dividend in the spring during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, perplexed investors who sold down the shares by as much as 12 per cent at one stage. The announcement came despite the company claiming that there had been limited impact from the pandemic, that its business model was resilient, that the lockdowns had prompted a boom in boxes for home delivery and that it had access to £1.4 billion in cash and no debt repayments due soon. Miles Roberts, the company’s chief executive, said that “unprecedented uncertainty” in April had

Source: The Times July 02, 2020 11:03 UTC