Dividend payouts hit by global headwinds

The slowdown in dividend payouts by the world’s biggest companies continued in the third quarter as waning profit growth hit shareholder payouts.

Investors are bracing for further headwinds in 2020 as the global economic picture darkens. The US-China trade war is thwarting economic growth, and major economies such as the UK and Germany only narrowly avoided slipping into recession in the three months to September.

Despite the slowdown, Janus Henderson, which compiles the global dividends report, forecast that total dividends at the world’s 1,200 largest listed companies will hit a record $1.43 trillion (£1.22 trillion) for 2019.

Investors in Asia suffered a 1pc year-on-year fall in underlying…