Shell keeps divi as firms scrap £15bn of payouts

A SLEW of Britain’s biggest companies have axed more than £15bn of dividends during a brutal month for investors.

Companies including banking giants HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Standard Chartered along with mining behemoth Glencore cut or deferred £10.3bn of shareholder payouts yesterday alone.

But Royal Dutch Shell clung onto its dividend – in a reassuring move for investors worried that a crash in oil prices would cut the Footsie’s biggest payout.

More than 150 firms either cancelled or postponed dividends in March as they struggled with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, AJ Bell analysis shows.

Many companies have also brought in other measures to shore up their books, such as cutting spending, lowering salaries or even furloughing staff.

But the dividend moves will hurt millions of ordinary savers and pensioners, as well as investment funds, that rely on them as a passive source of income.

As the banks axed dividends following an intervention by regulators, commodities trader and miner Glencore deferred a £2.1bn payout to shareholders.

Boss Ivan Glasenberg, who owns a 9pc stake worth £1.5bn, will lose £194m from the decision.

Shell, however, has gone to great lengths to preserve its dividend - securing another £9.7bn worth of debt to safeguard the Footsie’s largest shareholder payout.

It now has £32bn worth of lending at its disposal and has unveiled plans to cut spending by £7.2bn to preserve cash amid a slump in demand triggered by Covid-19 and a crash in oil prices.

Other big- names including advertising giant WPP – which was due to hand £460m to investors – and the AA also said they would sacrifice their payouts yesterday.