DIVIDENDS from taxpayer-owned businesses are “nice to haves” rather than essential after it emerged that a £20m dividend from JT last year was not paid as expected, the Treasury Minister has said.
The recently published States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts for 2025 revealed that Deputy Elaine Millar and her Treasury team had budgeted for a dividend from the telecoms operator, which is 100% owned by the public.
However, JT’s board decided not to pay one. Explaining why, the accounts report: “During the year, JT announced a major strategic acquisition, resulting in the board deciding to retain profits to support the funding and integration of the transaction.
“In addition, there have been lower profits in 2025, compared to 2024. As a consequence, no dividend was declared or paid in respect of the 2025 financial year, leading to a notable reduction in overall dividend income when compared with 2024.”
That “strategic acquisition” was JT’s purchase of Manx Telecom in a private-equity backed £500m deal, which is expected to receive full political and regulatory approval this week.
JT is one of several States-owned entities which add more than £1.7 billion to the public balance sheet. The business, which has a net asset value of £145m, is on a list which includes Andium (£965m), Ports of Jersey (£371), JEC (£88m), Jersey Development Company (£60m), Jersey Water (£50m) and Jersey Post (£31m).
Taxpayers own 62% of the JEC, 72% of Jersey Water, and 100% of the rest.
The £20m budgeted payment from JT to the Treasury Department formed the lion’s share of the total £21.2m dividend income that the government expected to receive last year. In the end, just £6.8m was paid to central coffers – £14.4m less than budgeted.
Like JT, Ports of Jersey and Jersey Post paid no dividend while Andium made a financial return of £26.7m and £9.8m interest income to pay off government loans.
In total, revenues to the Treasury last year increased by £33m, or 2.7%, on 2024 which was slightly lower than forecast due to the lack of JT’s dividend.
Deputy Millar said: “We were budgeting for a dividend and made an estimate of what one might be but that decision ultimately rests with the JT board, who have all manner of commercial considerations to take into account.
“It is not a huge gap for us and is not something the Treasury relies upon: it is probably a nice to have rather than essential. As a shareholder, there is no point insisting on a dividend then, six months later, the company saying that it need ‘x’ millions to spend on a project but they don’t have the money.”
She added: “It is a circuitous process because it is in the interests of the shareholder to have a business that is able to invest in its future. We will always set out what our expectations are as a shareholder but it is ultimately up to the individual boards. That said, I spend quite a lot of time with them and ask some challenging questions, as taxpayers would expect me to.”
Deputy Millar said that all the States-owned entities had significant capital investments to make, from new harbours to power cables to France.
She added that the JEC and Jersey Water had well-established dividend policies, the States Assembly had agreed that Ports were not required to pay one in lieu of its management of key infrastructure, and Jersey Post were likely to pay a dividend this year after returning to a stronger financial position.
