5.4 Interim Dividend, Unpaid Dividend, and Unclaimed Dividend and their Status

Interim dividend — the board's mid-year declaration (between AGMs) from the year's profits-so- far: the directors' own responsibility (declared only where the articles authorise and the profits warrant; conservatism's ethic — the board answers for the error). Unpaid dividend — declared but not taken (the shareholder's death, the lost warrants, the bank's failure): the company holds it as trustee for the entitled shareholder (the debt survives; the claim does not die). Unclaimed dividend — unpaid past the statutory window: the statutory transfer's discipline — the funds move to the prescribed account (the investor-protection fund or the statutory depository's unclaimed-account regime under the securities frame), with the shareholder's subsequent claim against the fund (not lost — transferred, the escheat's soft form).