(Telecompaper) Telefonica has confirmed that it will stick by its promise to pay a dividend of EUR 0.75 a share this year even after the European Commission blocked the proposed sale of its O2 UK business to Hutchison. In the first annual general shareholders meeting chaired by new chairman Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, the company approved the dividend, with a first payment of EUR 0.35 per share to be paid in November and a second payment of EUR 0.40 per share to be distributed during the first half of 2017. Telefonica's chairman added that the company's financial targets remained unchanged even though it had hoped to use the proceeds from exiting the UK market to reduce its debt. "After receiving the decision of the regulator, we will now enter a period of reflection to decide what is the future of our business in the United Kingdom," he said.