Liontrust cuts dividend as assets and profits slump

Liontrust has decided to cut its dividend payment after seeing before tax profit slump from £14.3m to £796,000 over the year to end March.

The fund group, which is still struggling from the loss of key managers Jeremy Lang and William Pattisson last year, will not pay a second dividend to shareholders - leaving the payout at 2.5p per share for the year, down 10p per share on last year. Liontrust suffered £1.27bn of net outflows over the year, with funds under management at end march 2010 standing at £1.15bn. Its assets have dwindled further over the last few months, with AUM at £1.06bn as of yesterday. "The board has considered the current market environment and the financial performance of the Group in the current year ...