Ship canal considers £20m divi

SHAREHOLDERS of the Manchester Ship Canal will meet today to consider granting dividend payments worth £20m.

The business is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Peel Holdings but under the ship canal’s constitution it must hold an extraordinary meeting to address such affairs.

Dividends worth £860,000 were paid last year when the business made a pre-tax profit of £12m on sales of £26.7m.

According to a public notice the company will consider resolutions to pay £280,000 to holders of preference shares and £16,720,000 on ordinary shares. And it is proposed to make a further payment of £3m on ordinary shares.

There is also a resolution to increase the number of directors from seven to 10.

A spokesman for Peel Ports said the group wanted to put more operational directors on the board including Gary Hodgson, the managing director of the ship canal’s parent, the Mersey Docks & Harbour Company.

The spokesman declined to discuss the size of the dividend. He said: “This is a privately-owned, wholly-owned company within the group. It doesn’t need to answer these questions.”

Manchester-based Peel Holdings will benefit from the dividend payments through its Peel Ports Investments subsidiary. The ship canal earns revenue from its land holdings and from the ships that use the waterway.

The meeting is being held at the Maritime Centre, Port of Liverpool.