Seasonal cheer on debt for Yule Catto

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But it's not all good news for shareholders. The Essex-based supplier of ingredients for paint and cosmetics said it will not pay dividends for as long as two years as it seeks to cut its debt to below £100 million.

The news came with an upbeat trading statement, with the group saying it expects underlying pre-tax earnings for 2008 to be up on the previous year, despite difficult market conditions in the UK and continental Europe.

Yule Catto also revealed that it has completed £55 million of divestments.

"Within our polymer chemicals business we anticipate the performance of our Asian and Middle East businesses to be more robust than that of our European businesses, due to local market conditions and a more resilient demand profile from our targeted markets, "it said. "This is a sensible step which gets the issue of debt off the table."

Yule Catto shares slipped 2p to 52p.