‘Stretched’ Ladbrokes set to cut dividend

Analysts expect Ladbrokes to cut its annual dividend payment to shareholders next year, saying consensus forecasts for the group’s current financial year look "stretched".

The British betting services giant yesterday reported a 1.6% year-on-year increase in net revenue, for the first half of 2014, to £577.8m (€727m) excluding ‘high roller’ accounts; but pre-tax profits fell by nearly 50% to £27.7m, underlying earnings per share was down 39% at 4.3p and group operating profit was down by just under 34% to £56.8m.

Nevertheless, the company said it had delivered on all of its planned operational improvements on schedule and saw a strong financial performance from this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, which boosted its mobile user traffic.