Next lines up further £75m for shareholders

Next: Investors set for additional dividend. Picture: Contributed

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

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.”