April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Hyundai Motor will pay a year-end cash dividend of 3,000 won (US$2.57) per share to the shareholders, South Korea’s largest automaker said during a conference call on Jan. 25 after its fourth-quarter earnings report. 

When adding the 1,000-won interim dividend paid in July last year, the automaker is returning 4,000 won per share to shareholders for the year 2016, the company’s highest record shared with 2014. 

With the dividend announcement, Hyundai CFO Choi Byeong-cheol said the automaker will allocate 30-50 percent of free cash flow as shareholder returns, compared with the 10-30 percent range in the past, in an effort to boost shareholder profits. 

Hyundai said its fourth-quarter operating profit slumped 32.6 percent on-year to 1.02 trillion won (US$876.03 million) last year, largely hit hard by production loss at domestic plants and slowed sales in emerging markets. Revenue came to 24.53 trillion won, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, while net profit stood at 1.07 trillion won in the October-December period, down 30.1 percent on-year. 

Overall, the automaker posted annual revenue of 93.65 trillion won, up 1.8 percent from 2015, but its operating profit slipped 18.3 percent to 5.19 trillion won, the lowest level since 2010. 

Hyundai logged a net profit of 5.72 trillion won in 2016, down 12.1 percent from 2015. The automaker sold 4.85 million cars globally, down 2.1 percent from the previous year.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)