BRITAIN’S biggest firms have roared back to life after the pandemic, announcing billions in profits and dividend payouts.
They revealed payouts to investors, including pension funds, of more than £7billion in a day dubbed Super Thursday.
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Drinks firm Diageo — makers of Guinness, Gordon’s gin and Johnnie Walker whisky — was cheered by the reopening of pubs, restaurants and nightclubs around the world.
Profits jumped by nearly a fifth to £3.7billion, and it announced a dividend worth £1.6billion.
Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell unveiled plans for a £6billion payout to investors, along with quarterly profits of £4billion.
Lloyds Banking Group’s profits hit nearly £4billion for the first half of the year.
It said its £473million dividend will benefit more than two million small investors.
Defence specialist BAE Systems, behind the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier and Eurofighter jet, is set to pay out £1billion thanks to an increase in sales.
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Danni Hewson, financial analyst at stockbroker AJ Bell, said: “Forget the Olympics — it is UK plc that’s winning plaudits.
“After months of lockdowns and gruelling restrictions the country’s businesses put their feet firmly on the accelerator pedal.”
Susannah Streeter, at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said the return of payouts is an indicator of a “surge in confidence that the economic ship has now steadied and better days have arrived”.
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