French defence contractor Thales has suspended its annual dividend, keeping €430m in the company to help maintain cash flow throughout the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The company has also withdrawn its 2020 financial outlook delivered earlier this year, and extended its credit line to help see its way through the crisis. Since early March the company has seen its share value plummet by just over 16%.
Thales chair and chief executive officer Patrice Caine said: “Today we are announcing a series of exceptional measures to deal with the scale of the Covid-19 crisis.
“Our first priority is and will remain the implementation of all the measures necessary to preserve the health of our employees, their relatives, our customers and the population at large, in all the countries where we operate.”
