Poor Social Responsibility

Major car importers are being criticized as concentrating too much on dividend payment rather than reinvestment in the local car market.
Major car importers are being criticized as concentrating too much on dividend payment rather than reinvestment in the local car market.

 

It has been found that eight car importers in South Korea which have disclosed their audit reports for 2016, such as Mercedes Benz Korea, Porsche Korea and Audi Volkswagen Korea, paid a dividend of 65.4 billion won (US$58 million) in total last year. During the period, their donations stood at approximately 2.45 billion won (US$2.2 million).

For example, major shareholders in Mercedes Benz took a dividend of 45.6 billion won (US$41 million) from Mercedes Benz Korea last year. Although the amount fell 22% from a year ago, it still overwhelms its donations by a factor of 20. In the case of Daimler Truck Korea, the dividend and donation totaled 16.4 billion won (US$14 million) and 39.27 million won (US$35,000), respectively.

Under the circumstances, they are being criticized as concentrating too much on dividend payment rather than reinvestment in the local car market. The reinvestment is essential for increases in the numbers of service centers and engineers with the local imported car market showing an exponential growth.

Car importers themselves have said over and over that they would increase their investment in the local market. In fact, however, they are transferring most of their profits to their home countries while causing dealerships to bear the burden. The gap between the dividend and donations is likely to widen once the audit reports of the others are disclosed, including Japanese companies closing their books in July.

 

 

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