Ronnie Scott's owners pay themselves £3 million dividend

• The owners of London’s most iconic jazz club have paid themselves a £3 million dividend, its latest accounts show, after the venue’s largest shareholders tightened their grip over the ownership of the company. 65-year-old Soho-based Ronnie Scott’s, famed for hosting music legends such as Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Jimi Hendrix, showed signs of a strong recovery after the pandemic, with sales of £14 million in the year to March 2023, a jump of around a third compared to the previous year, while pre-tax profits stood at £3.4 million. Company filings show Monaco-based millionaire property developer Robert Bourne became a major shareholder in November after acquiring a stake from long-serving 83-year-old director Michael Watt via an offshore entity known as “Jazz Box.”