BP will not pay dividends for the remainder of the year after being forced to put $20bn (£13.5bn) into a compensation fund for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The oil giant was due to make a $2.6bn dividend payment on Monday, which has now been cancelled. Its move will be a huge blow for investors in the UK, especially millions of people in pension funds and equity income vehicles. BP dividends account for around £1 in every £7 of share payouts from UK blue-chip firms and have not been slashed since 1992. The last time that BP suspended a dividend payment was during World War II. Barack Obama announced the compensation deal after talks at the White House with senior BP executives. Shortly afterwards, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said...
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