wording of distribution announcement, page-6

These property company stapled securities always say "anticipated distribution".

Wheras a regular company can declare the specific amount of a dividend before it trades ex-dividend, the distribution from a property stapled security includes a trust distribution. There are various accounting constraints on trust distributions - trusts have to distribute all of their income, no more and no less, to avoid adverse tax consequences, or something. The rationale for saying it is "anticipated" is that it depends on the actual accounts for the half-year which can't be resolved until the half-year has ended. On the other hand, the estimate has to be pretty good, otherwise people would not know how much lower the security "should" trade ex-dist next Tuesday would they ?

I can think of only one case in which a company has altered the estimate after the fact, and only two cases in which it was canceled ( one of which was RAT last summer, I think ).