Clicks to preserve cash, withholding interim dividend

JOHANNESBURG – The Clicks Group has decided to withhold paying an interim dividend for the six months to end February as it wants to preserve cash as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

But the pharmaceutical health and beauty retailer said yesterday that it would consider an annual dividend at the end of the financial year.

Chief executive Vikesh Ramsunder said trading conditions were expected to be extremely tough as the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was still unknown.

“We could be still faced with the outbreak for a long time. The board has decided that it would be prudent to hold on to cash at the moment,” Ramsunder said.

Clicks reported a 14.4percent increase in diluted earnings per share to 338cents a share while headline earnings inched up by 13.1 percent to R851.2million.