There are any number of questions facing Jim Mullen, the chief executive of Ladbrokes since the start of the month. The most important, from an investors’ point of view, is what happens to the dividend after Peter Erskine, the chairman, suggested in February that it was “currently” the intention to maintain it at 8.9p for 2015.
The answer is self-evident. The payment will be cut. The shares are yielding more than 8 per cent, the payment is uncovered by this year’s earnings and Ladbrokes needs the cash to invest in its flagging retail estate.
No one is going to blame Mr Mullen for taking the decision to cut. A more intractable question is what he does about that retail estate.
Ladbrokes is one of the