Dividend Paid by S. Korean Companies Increased Last Year

It has been found that South Korean companies ending their fiscal year in December paid their real stockholders a dividend of 19.4593 trillion won (US$16.92 billion) in total last year, up 26.2% from a year ago. The dividend that went to non-South Korean real stockholders increased 22.5% to 7.3919 trillion won (US$6.42 billion) during the same period.

The Korea Securities Depository announced on May 19 that 973 such companies, 29 more than a year earlier, paid cash dividends last year and the amount of the dividend in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) market rose by 3.8825 trillion won (US$3.376 billion) year on year to 18.3496 trillion won (US$15.95 billion).

970 companies, 30 more than a year ago, paid dividends to non-South Korea real stockholders. In the KOSPI market, the foreigners took a total dividend of 7.2729 trillion won (US$6.32 billion), up 23.1% year on year.

Those in the semiconductor industry recorded the largest dividend payment, 3.7188 trillion won (US$3.23 billion) equivalent to 19.1% of the total. It was followed by those in the electrical industry (8.3%) and the auto industry (6.4%) and financial holding companies. Samsung Electronics paid foreign stockholders 1.7961 trillion won (US$1.56 billion) while the amount was US$541.9 million (up 574.5%) for the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and US$370.4 million for Hyundai Motor Company.

In the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) market, the dividend paid to foreigners dropped by 10.7 billion won (US$ 9.30 million) to 119 billion won (US$103 million). 12 billion won (US$10.4 million), 7.1 billion won (US$6.1 million) and 5.8 billion won (US$5.0 million) were paid by GS Home Shopping, Dongsuh and Korea Ratings, respectively. U.S. investors took a dividend of 3.0851 trillion won (US$2.68 billion), followed by U.K. (US$532.6 million) and Luxembourgian (US$391.8million).