Flush with cash thanks to soaring commodity prices, the mining giant Rio Tinto wants to avoid adding to its record of ill-timed splurges on major acquisitions. The obvious answer? Hand back a record dividend to keep shareholders sweet.
It will pay out a total $10.40 a share to investors, one of the biggest total dividends ever declared in British corporate history, and which, at the current share price, equates to a bumper 13.7 per cent dividend yield. That’s also a rise of more than 80 per cent on the previous year. Amid rapidly rising inflation and the clamour for real yields, it’s little wonder that the shares are priced more than a quarter higher than at the start of 2020 despite easing in value over
