Advice on smartshares

[lawson]

Hi I'm resurrecting an old thread rather than starting a new one because my question relates to smartshares and I was also interested in any advice/thoughts anyone might have.

Smartshare have a NZ Dividend (DIV) ETF it usually has twice yearly distributions.(June & December)

They list the following companies as being the top 10 holdings

Contact Energy 10.32%
Meridian 9.5%
Spark 9.05%
Infratil 7.34%
Chorus 6.87%
Mercury 6.53%
Ebos 5.45%
Genesis 4.86&
Ryman 4.67%
Goodman Property Trust 4.33%

They have announced yesterday that they will not pay the second dividend for the year usually paid December. The notice said:

Smartshares Distribution – November 2020 Smartshares NZ Dividend ETF (DIV) pays semi-annual distributions, where available, based on income received during that distribution calculation period from the underlying securities.For the period 20 May 2020 to 18 November 2020, DIV has not received sufficient income to pay a distribution. It is expected DIV will pay the next distribution for the period ending 31 May 2021.

However, the top 10 holdings they list (that I detailed above and which represent approx 70% of the ETF) all paid their dividend. None of them missed. Ryman & GMT are a little down but Chrous and Ebos's dividends were a little up. How can there be nothing to distribute? What's the point of investing in a DIvidend ETF invested in underlying companies that did pay a dividend but then the ETF says it can't?

I was literally about to invest some money on behalf of my mother into DIV - as it seemed a diversified, low fee option and she just needs a range of income investments that will beat the bank and I thought this might be one to include but now I am really puzzled as to how this is working?

Does anyone have any thoughts or have any experience of being with smartshares?

Thanks