Listed firms in Korea give out $7.9 bn in interim dividends, up from last year

Interim and quarterly dividend payouts by South Korea’s listed companies rose from a year ago for three years in a row, mostly owning to lavish payouts by Samsung Electronics Co.

According to data released by the Financial Supervisory Service on Sunday, 58 listed companies gave out a combined 9.3 trillion won ($7.9 billion) in interim and quarterly dividends to their shareholders this year, four companies more and 200 billion won higher than last year.

The total value of interim dividends has been on an increase over the past three years from 953.6 billion won in 2016 by 41 firms to 4.6 trillion won by 51 companies in 2017 and 9.1 trillion won by 54 firms in 2018.

The gain was largely attributed to the surge in dividend payouts by the nation’s heavyweight Samsung Electronics that paid 7.2 trillion won this year. It shelled out 7.2 trillion won in interim dividends last year, soaring from 141.6 billion won in 2016 and 2.9 trillion won in 2017. The company accounted for 77.4 percent of entire payouts by listed firms this year.

Forty one firms listed on the main Kospi market gave out a combined 9.27 trillion won in interim and quarterly dividends and 17 firms listed on the secondary Kosdaq market paid 46.5 billion won. Twenty eight Kospi-listed firms including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor delivered their interim dividends for three consecutive years and six firms including SK and Doosan for two straight years. Seven firms including Lotte Corp. and Hyundai Mobis paid their first-ever interim dividends.

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