LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey said on Thursday that it will cut around 2,500 jobs and halve its dividend as it takes a hit from the coronavirus pandemic.
In its preliminary results for the year to the end of March, Matthey said pre-tax profit slid 38% to £305m, with the company pointing to a restructuring and impairment charge of £140m and a charge of around £60m related to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Johnson Matthey said that excluding the effect of Covid, it made "good" progress in 2019/20 and delivered operating performance slightly ahead of market expectations.

Revenue rose 36% to £14.6bn, driven by higher average precious metal prices but underlying sales were down 2% to £4.1bn, amid weakness in the Clean Air division.

The group said that given ongoing uncertainty, it is unable to provide financial guidance for 2020/21 and is proposing halving the final dividend for the year to 31.125p a share.

It will also be cutting its workforce by 2,500 over the next three years as it looks to make further cost savings.

Chief executive Robert MacLeod said: "Looking forward, we are accelerating our strategy to drive greater efficiency across the business, building upon the investments we have made in new manufacturing facilities and in our systems and processes. We have delivered nearly £120 million of our previously announced cost savings.

"However, we recognise the need to be even more efficient in order to maintain our competitiveness and in addition some of our end markets have been affected by Covid-19. Therefore, we are targeting additional annualised cost savings of at least £80 million by the end of 2022/23. We regret that this will lead to some job losses."

At 0922 BST, the shares were down 3.2% at 2,120p.

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