REI cuts dividend payments over ‘ongoing uncertainties’

Real Estate Investors (REI) says it is cutting its dividend payments due to “ongoing uncertainties” surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

The listed firm says it will now pay a 0.5p per share Q1 dividend, with the expectation that this will also be the level of dividend for Q2 and Q3.

REI says it has “not taken this decision lightly”, and “looks forward to the resumption of sustainable dividend growth, as soon as it is prudent to do so”.

Meanwhile, the company said that rent collection for the March quarter so far is 81% and that it remaisn in a dialogue with occupiers whose payments remain overdue.

Paul Bassi, chief executive of Real Estate Investors, said: “The diversity of our portfolio combined with our close working relationships with our tenants and their advisers, together with managements’ in-depth knowledge of the regional marketplace, continues to be the strength of our business model. That said, given the current market environment, it is appropriate that we act prudently and a logical precaution is to reduce dividend payments during the course of the year leaving the option to make a larger final payment, if the company is able to continue to maintain its current resilience.”