John Menzies suspends dividends as they prepare for Covid-19 impact

The Edinburgh based company John Menzies has suspended the annual dividend as the aviation sector are preparing for the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Menzies warned investors two weeks ago the outbreak will affect their profits for 2020, reporting a 19.9% decline in pre-tax profits to £17.3m in the year to 31 December.

Giles Wilson, chief executive of John Menzies said, “Last year, we said we would be ‘fit for 2020’ by doing five things: right-sizing the business, fixing under-performing operations, improving customer engagement, investing in our team and targeting higher margin business.

“We’ve delivered on all five thanks to the hard work of all our colleagues.

“We now have the right team and the right structure that puts us in a strong position to seize the opportunities in this structural growth aviation market.”

Philipp Joeinig, executive chairman said, “We are currently experiencing some headwinds due to the impact of Covid-19 on our activities, but in the medium and long term we see genuine opportunities for growth.”

British Airways (BA) has cancelled all flights to and from Italy from Tuesday, whilst Ryanair will stop all flights from Saturday 9 April.