UK DIVIDENDS increased 25% in the first quarter of 2012 to reach a record £18.8 billion.
However, the headline total was distorted by special payments of £2.2bn by both Vodafone and Scottish oil and gas explorer Cairn Energy.
Stripping out those factors the underlying picture was weaker than expected with growth of just 6.6% which was weaker than the 12.8% underlying increase for the whole of 2011 and below what Capita had forecast.
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article.