France Telecom shareholders vote to keep EUR 1.40 dividend

News General France 6 JUN 2012
France Telecom shareholders vote to keep EUR 1.40 dividend
France Telecom-Orange's shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal from employee shareholders to reduce the group's 2011 dividend from EUR 1.40 to EUR 1 a share, Reuters reports. The CFE-CGC Unsa union immediately blamed the government, Orange's biggest shareholder with 27 percent ownership. The group will pay out nearly EUR 4.4 billion in dividends for 2011, the same as a year earlier. Orange did however warn that it plans to reduce the dividend for 2012 and 2013 to face the price war that broke out after Free's entry into the mobile sector. Orange expects its operating cash flow to contract to EUR 8 billion and its EBITDA to decrease by EUR 1 billion this year.

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