The payment of the first dividend since 1989 by Seafield, the Britain-based transport and warehousing group, was dependent on balancing claims being made on resources, the company's chairman, Mr Peter Duffy, said at yesterday's a.g.m. Seafield made a pre-tax profit of £603,000 in 1997 - a trebling of its 1996 figure - and the share price was reflecting this performance, Mr Duffy added. "We are going to have the money to pay the dividend but, equally, if we have this very big cap ex programme, we are going to have to see how we deal with it," he said.

The managing director, Mr Lyle Noble, said discussions were going ahead with existing major clients and "a potential large new client" for its warehousing business.