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Newspaper and magazine distributor Connect Group scrapped its interim dividend and said it expected a further coronavirus-led impact on performance in the second half of the year after first-half profit fell 12% on lower revenue.
In an effort to maintain liquidity, the company said no interim dividend would be paid.
For the 26 weeks ended 29 February 2020, pre-tax profit fell 12.4% to £16.3m on-year as revenue slipped 4.5% to £623.1m.
The fall in revenue was driven by a structural decline in newspaper and magazine print sales, the company said.
Smiths News' revenue declined by 4.1% to £25.6m, and DMD's revenue was down 28.1% to £3.6m, both in line with expectations.
'The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions imposed by the UK Government continue to cause significant uncertainty for the Group and will of course adversely impact the Group's performance in the second half of the year,' the company said.
At 8:28am: (LON:CNCT) Connect Group PLC share price was +0.48p at 18.33p