Listed firms’ dividends dip 13.7 pct in 2021

SEOUL-- South Korean listed firms' dividend payouts sank nearly 14 percent in 2021 from a year earlier due mainly to a one-off factor, the bourse operator said Wednesday.

Combined dividend payments by 556 out of the 779 companies listed on the main KOSPI market came to 28.6 trillion won (US$23.1 billion) last year, down 13.7 percent from the previous year, according to the Korea Exchange (KRX).

But the number of companies that paid cash dividends stood at 529, up 5.1 percent from a year earlier. Those listed corporations close their books in December.

Excluding top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., their total dividend payouts surged 30.5 percent on-year to 26.2 trillion won.

Samsung's dividend payments tumbled to 2.5 trillion won last year from the previous year's 13.1 trillion won. Samsung paid out a hefty amount of special dividends in 2020.

Their average payout ratio, referring to the percentage of net income paid to shareholders in dividends, amounted to 35.41 percent, down 4.14 percentage points from the previous year. The drop was ascribed to a jump in earnings.

The ratio of dividends to their share prices soared to a five-year high of 2.32 percent for common stock last year.

Meanwhile, 589 firms trading on the secondary KOSDAQ market paid out a combined 2.2 trillion won in dividends last year, up 24.8 percent from a year earlier and surpassing the 2 trillion-won mark for the first time. The number of dividend-paying firms was up from 557 a year earlier.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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