Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, August 2, 2019

Article Excerpt

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC., $17.81, Toronto symbol SNC, is a leading Canadian engineering and construction company that specializes in large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, transit systems and water-treatment plants. To conserve cash for debt repayments, SNC is cutting its quarterly dividend by 80.0%. Starting with the August 2019 payment, investors will receive $0.02 a share instead of $0.10. The new annual rate of $0.08 yields 0.4%. The company now plans to exit lump-sum, turnkey construction projects that expose it to unexpected cost overruns. As a result of that decision, SNC is also writing down the value of its Kentz business by $1.9 billion. In August 2014, it paid $2.1 billion for Kentz, which sells engineering and construction services to oil and gas firms. If you exclude that writedown and other unusual items, SNC lost $234 million, or $1.33 a share, in the quarter ended June 30, 2019. A year earlier, it earned $155 million, or $0.88 a share. Revenue fell 9.6%, to $2.28…