Next lines up further £75m for shareholders

Investors in fashion chain Next are to share in an additional £75 million special dividend payment, it was announced yesterday.

Next: Investors set for additional dividend. Picture: Contributed

When the group updated on festive trading at the start of January it suspended its share buyback programme and said it would pay a 50p-a-share special dividend, equating to £75m, this coming Monday.

It said yesterday that an additional special dividend of 50p will be paid on 1 May.

Next, which has seen its share price rise by more than 50 per cent in the last year, is due to release full-year results covering trading to the end of last month on 20 March.

The group’s Christmas trading update, published on 3 January, revealed a near-12 per cent jump in sales in the seven weeks leading up to 24 December.

Chief executive Simon Wolfson admitted: “We weren’t planning for anything like as good a Christmas as we had.”