LSE Dividend Timetable: Ex-Date and Record Date

The London Stock Exchange dividend timetable, published by the exchange every year as the Dividend Procedure Timetable, fixes the standard dates a UK-listed company works to when it pays a dividend. Ex-dividend dates normally fall on a Thursday, with the associated record date one business day later, usually the Friday. That weekly grid is the concrete difference from the US pattern, where the ex-date and the record date now land on the same day.

What is the LSE Dividend Procedure Timetable?

It is a short document built around one table. Each row carries three dates: an ex-dividend date, its associated record date, and the latest announcement date a company can use and still keep that slot. Every ex-dividend date in the table is a Thursday unless a bank holiday moves it, every record date the Friday after, and every latest announcement date the Thursday of the week before.

Four dates run in sequence for a shareholder.

1. Announcement date. The company declares the dividend through a Primary Information Provider, the regulated news service that carries UK company announcements, under the headline category Dividend Declaration or inside its interim or final results. The release has to state the amount and the currency, the dividend type, the record date, the payment date, and the last day and time to elect where a scrip or currency alternative is offered.
2. Ex-dividend date. From the start of trading, a buyer of the shares is not entitled to the declared dividend. The seller keeps it.
3. Record date. The registrar photographs the share register. Whoever appears on it is paid.
4. Payment date. The exchange asks that a straightforward cash dividend reach shareholders within 30 business days of the record date, and that companies with smaller registers target 20.

The exchange publishes the grid. The company picks the row. Anything needing a timetable outside the grid has to be agreed with the exchange's corporate actions team ahead of the announcement. That is a different arrangement from the one in who sets the ex-dividend date in the US, where no annual calendar exists and the ex-date falls out of the record date the board chooses.

Why London ex-dividend dates fall on a Thursday

The exchange states the principle from the record date backwards: the record date should normally be a Friday, and with standard settlement of T+2 the associated ex-date falls one business day earlier.

Work it through. A UK equity trade settles two business days after the trade. Buy on Wednesday and the trade settles Friday, in time for a Friday snapshot of the register. Buy on Thursday and it settles Monday, after the snapshot has been taken. Thursday is the first day on which a buyer no longer collects the payment, which is exactly what ex-dividend means. As of August 2026 the UK still runs T+2, with a move to T+1 scheduled for 11 October 2027. Shorten the cycle and this arithmetic shifts with it, the way it already shifted in the US. Our guide to T+1 settlement walks through that mechanism.

The US has no weekly grid of this kind, and its ex-dates show it. The panel below counts every US ex-dividend date across two fixed years and sorts them by weekday.

SELECT
    formatDateTime(ex_dividend_date, '%W')                     AS dow_label,
    uniqExact(id)                                              AS ex_dividend_count,
    round(100 * uniqExact(id) / sum(uniqExact(id)) OVER (), 1) AS share_pct
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ex_dividend_date >= '2024-06-01'
  AND ex_dividend_date <  '2026-06-01'
  AND toDayOfWeek(ex_dividend_date) BETWEEN 1 AND 5
  AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
GROUP BY dow_label
ORDER BY min(toDayOfWeek(ex_dividend_date))

The split runs Monday 23.9%, Tuesday 18.8%, Wednesday 13.8%, Thursday 16.2% and Friday 27.3%. Every weekday carries a real share of the US calendar. In London, one weekday carries almost all of it.

The record date on the Friday, and the gap the US closed

Same two dates, different calendar discipline. In London the ex-date and the record date sit one business day apart, and they have stayed that way. In the US they were one business day apart too, until the settlement cycle shortened in May 2024 and the pair collapsed onto a single day. This panel tracks that change month by month over a fixed two-year window.

SELECT
    toString(toStartOfMonth(ex_dividend_date))                AS month,
    formatDateTime(toStartOfMonth(ex_dividend_date), '%b %Y') AS month_label,
    round(100 * uniqExactIf(id, record_date = ex_dividend_date)
              / uniqExact(id), 1)                             AS same_day_pct
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ex_dividend_date >= '2023-06-01'
  AND ex_dividend_date <  '2025-06-01'
  AND record_date      >= '2000-01-01'
  AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
GROUP BY month, month_label
ORDER BY month

In Jun 2023, 0% of US dividends carried a record date equal to the ex-date. By May 2025 the figure was 96.1%. The step in the middle of the line is the settlement change. London has not made that move yet, and a FTSE holder still watches two separate dates. For the two definitions side by side, start with record date vs ex-dividend date and come back here for the London calendar.

Cum div, ex div and the XD marker on a UK quote

Before the ex-dividend date a UK share trades cum div, market shorthand for "with dividend". No marker is needed; that is the default state. From the ex-date the quote is marked xd, and that label tells a buyer the price on screen no longer carries the declared payment. A holder who sells on an xd day keeps the dividend. Related markers follow the same grammar: xc for a share trading ex a capitalisation issue, xr for ex-rights.

The marker is a label on the quote, not an event in itself. The opening price on the ex-date typically starts lower by roughly the dividend amount, a mechanical adjustment covered in why stocks drop on the ex-dividend date, and the marker itself is unpacked in what XD means on a stock quote.

Do special dividends get the Thursday slot?

Not automatically. The grid covers ordinary interim and final dividends. Several cases fall outside it, and each is agreed with the exchange in advance.

A special dividend that depends on a takeover offer becoming unconditional in all respects is marked ex-dividend one business day after the announcement that the offer has gone unconditional, where that announcement lands before 8.00am, or two business days after where it lands later in the day. The date of that announcement is normally the record date.

A special dividend paid alongside a share consolidation, where the share count is cut and the price scaled up to match, is treated as ex-entitlement on the effective date of the consolidation, the day dealings in the consolidated shares begin. The record date for the dividend and the consolidation is the same day, the business day before that effective date.

A dividend conditional on a scheme of arrangement becoming effective, using the same record date, is normally not marked ex-dividend at all.

Dividends declared in a currency other than sterling

A London listing does not oblige a company to declare in sterling, and plenty of FTSE 100 names declare in US dollars. The announcement has to carry the amount and the currency in the body of the release rather than on a linked web page, and dividends are stated gross unless the release says otherwise.

Where a currency election is offered, letting a holder take the cash in sterling instead of the declared currency, the announcement must publish the last day and time to elect. Election dates are asked to fall at least ten business days after the record date, which places the conversion between the record date and payment rather than at declaration. The sterling amount a holder finally receives is not fixed on the day of the announcement when an election is in play.

Tax deducted at source is a separate question from the timetable and travels with the company rather than the exchange. UK-resident companies pay ordinary dividends without withholding; a Property Income Distribution from a UK REIT is the exception, which is why the announcement must flag whether a dividend is wholly or partly a PID. The cross-border version of the same question is covered in dividend withholding tax for non-US investors.

How much notice, and how long until the cash

The latest announcement date in the grid is a hard floor. A dividend has to be declared through a Primary Information Provider and notified to the exchange at least six business days before the proposed record date. Miss that and the ex-dividend date can be deferred to the following week. Most companies announce far earlier, alongside results.

The US sets no equivalent floor, and each issuer picks its own notice period. This panel groups US dividends over a fixed two-year window by the calendar gap from declaration to ex-date.

SELECT
    multiIf(notice_days <= 7,  '0 to 7 days',
            notice_days <= 14, '8 to 14 days',
            notice_days <= 21, '15 to 21 days',
            notice_days <= 35, '22 to 35 days',
            notice_days <= 60, '36 to 60 days',
                               'over 60 days')                 AS notice_bucket,
    uniqExact(id)                                              AS dividend_count,
    round(100 * uniqExact(id) / sum(uniqExact(id)) OVER (), 1) AS share_pct
FROM
(
    SELECT
        id,
        dateDiff('day', declaration_date, ex_dividend_date) AS notice_days
    FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
    WHERE ex_dividend_date >= '2024-06-01'
      AND ex_dividend_date <  '2026-06-01'
      AND declaration_date >= '2000-01-01'
      AND dateDiff('day', declaration_date, ex_dividend_date) BETWEEN 0 AND 400
      AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
)
GROUP BY notice_bucket
ORDER BY min(notice_days)

The shortest band, 0 to 7 days, holds 16.8% of them; the longest, over 60 days, holds 35.7%. For a reader used to a fixed grid, that spread is the ordinary US condition. Notice is a company decision there rather than an exchange rule.

On the payment side, London runs long. Thirty business days from the record date is roughly six calendar weeks. The panel below averages the ex-date to payment gap for fifteen large names over five fixed years, New York names first and London names after. The London group here is measured through each company's New York depositary line, a US-listed receipt representing shares held in London, rather than the ordinary shares.

SELECT
    ticker,
    if(ticker IN ('AZN', 'BP', 'BTI', 'DEO', 'HSBC', 'NGG', 'RIO', 'SHEL'),
       'London', 'New York')      AS primary_listing,
    round(avg(days_ex_to_pay), 1) AS avg_days_ex_to_pay
FROM
(
    SELECT
        ticker,
        max(dateDiff('day', ex_dividend_date, pay_date)) AS days_ex_to_pay
    FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
    WHERE ticker IN ('AAPL', 'AZN', 'BP', 'BTI', 'DEO', 'HSBC', 'JNJ', 'JPM',
                     'KO', 'MSFT', 'NGG', 'PG', 'RIO', 'SHEL', 'XOM')
      AND ex_dividend_date >= '2021-01-01'
      AND ex_dividend_date <  '2026-01-01'
      AND pay_date > ex_dividend_date
      AND dateDiff('day', ex_dividend_date, pay_date) <= 150
    GROUP BY id, ticker
)
GROUP BY ticker
ORDER BY primary_listing DESC, avg_days_ex_to_pay

The quickest turnaround among the New York names is AAPL, at 5.2 days from ex-date to cash. At the far end of the London group, NGG averages 56.3 days. A depositary receipt also keeps dates of its own: the exchange asks for at least three business days of notice on a depositary receipt dividend ahead of the record date, and where notice of the underlying dividend reaches the depositary bank late, the bank sets a separate record date for the receipt.

FAQ

When is the ex-dividend date for a UK stock?

Under the London Stock Exchange Dividend Procedure Timetable, ex-dividend dates normally fall on a Thursday, with the associated record date on the Friday. A bank holiday shifts the pair, and the timetable publishes those shifted dates alongside the standard ones.

What is the difference between the ex-dividend date and the record date on the LSE?

The ex-dividend date is the first day on which a buyer does not receive the declared dividend. The record date, one business day later in London, is the day the registrar checks the share register to see who gets paid. Both dates exist in the US as well, where they now fall together. The definitions are the same on either side of the Atlantic; the calendar discipline is not, as the ex-dividend date explained sets out.

What does cum div mean on a UK share?

Cum div describes a share still trading with the declared dividend attached, which is any day before the ex-dividend date. From the ex-date the quote is marked xd instead, and a buyer from that point no longer collects the payment.

How long after the ex-dividend date is a UK dividend paid?

The exchange asks companies to pay a straightforward cash dividend within 30 business days of the record date, and to target 20 business days where the shareholder register is small. Dividends carrying a scrip, reinvestment or currency election are asked for within 20 business days of the election date.

Does the LSE timetable apply to a company listed mainly overseas?

It applies to overseas issuers trading in London. Where a company's main listing sits on another exchange, its securities in London are normally treated as ex a benefit from the moment they go ex on that primary market.

Every panel above ships with the SQL that produced it, and any figure traces back to the rows behind it. To run the same counts on a name you hold, ask the question in plain English on the Strasmore terminal.