Very soon British Smaller may have much less cash than we expected....unless they can cancel our Special.
At present this is a level 1 enquiry but even that takes time and it could then go to level 2 which will probably take months. The level 1 deadline for a decision has not yet been confirmed.
It would appear to me unlikely that BSV will receive any funds in time to pay the special dividend on the planned timescale and we wouldn't want them to pay out money that isn't distributable in the right time frame. They have done that twice before and we had to get the Board off the hook with a GM resolution each time.
If a special dividend isn't paid, it also puts back the payment of the dividend based 'performance fee' which would become due to YFM, 20% of the dividends paid in a year above a modest hurdle.
What happens if one buys shares now at an xd price and the dividend is then cancelled. The price goes back to a cum divdend price and the buyer gains?