ADrunkenMarcus wrote:Standard Chartered announced yesterday that
a meeting of a Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on Tuesday, 27 February 2018 for the purpose of approving the release of the Company's announcement of results for the year ended 31 December 2017 and considering the payment of any final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2017. Furthermore, in compliance with Rule 13.66 of the HKSE it is proposed that, in the event of any final dividend being paid, the corresponding record date will be Friday, 9 March 2018.
So, if you want to buy in and qualify for a dividend whose existence and amount is undetermined, then you know when to buy!
It does seem a bit of a pointless announcement, doesn't it?
But if one looks at the
full announcement, one sees that it is titled "Overseas Regulatory Announcement", and the words you quote are preceded by "
In compliance with Rule 13.43 of the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ('HKSE'), Standard Chartered PLC (the "Company") today submitted to the HKSE an announcement that ...". In other words, they're making the announcement in order to comply with Hong Kong regulations, not necessarily because what it says is of any real significance.
I don't know Hong Kong regulations at all, but I believe having a board meeting to approve results would be pretty standard for public companies anywhere, and
considering paying a dividend would be pretty standard as well. Nothing says that the consideration needs to be anything more than "Does anyone think the company should pay a final dividend? No? OK, we're agreed on no dividend. The next item on the agenda is..."!
And about a year ago, the company made a
very similarly-worded announcement... I.e. the signs are that this is an absolutely routine announcement that the company is required to make and says nothing at all about the prospects of a dividend resumption. (I should stress that "nothing at all" means that it
neither indicates that dividends are likely to be resumed
nor that they're not. I.e. I'm just saying "Don't get your hopes up on this announcement", not "Dividends are unlikely to be resumed" - I have put no research at all into Standard Chartered's dividend prospects, so am not going to pretend that I have any worthwhile opinion on them!)
Gengulphus