Brian with respect mate you have no idea. Have you read the...

Brian with respect mate you have no idea. Have you read the latest results? Have you dissected them? Do you know what free cash flow is?

If you read the latest reports it clearly shows that dividends were entirely funded by free cash flow. In fact most analysts were critical that TLS decided not to INCREASE the dividend.

You imply that the dividend will fall now that the govt is out. This implies that the company held the dividends artificialy high to maintain some sort of valuation. Well I would dispute that. TLS is being valued as a utility stock now- not a growth stock. Utility stocks tend to have a high payout of dividends in lieu of using the funds to create future growth opportunities. That is why the dividends have always been attractive. Now that the share price has fallen to a lower PE to reflect its rating as a utility stock, there is limited downside . So now the share price has corrected you think that the dividend should come down again, so you can justify your historical view of the stocks performance which is a never ending fall<;

The company has borrowings. That is common sense to lever your balance sheet. It has been done conservatively and is solid business practice.
It is absolute rubbish to claim that they borrowed to pay their dividends. At the same time they have invested in their network and IT. Thats what the borrowing were for. Without their IT and wireless network spend there would be no need for borrowings. Under your theory anyone who buys a house to live in would be "borrowing money to live on". A very strange way of looking at things , but then it does help you extrapolate your exhaustive research.