April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The dividend payouts by listed firms of Korea’s top 10 conglomerates came to more than 45.92 trillion won (US$40.70 billion) between 2012 and 2016, market data showed on Oct. 30.

The dividend payouts have been on the rise since 2012, when the companies paid a combined 6.74 trillion won in dividends to shareholders. Last year, the dividend payouts jumped to 12.02 trillion won, according to the data compiled by industry tracker Chaebul.com.

Korea’s top market cap Samsung Electronics paid more than 1.9 trillion won to shareholders in the first half of this year alone. That raised the prospect that the total dividend payouts by the country’s top 10 conglomerates could surpass a record high of 15 trillion won this year.

Listed firms of Samsung Group paid a combined 18.57 trillion won in dividends to shareholders between 2012 and 2016, accounting for 40.4 percent of the total dividends paid to investors by the top 10 conglomerates.

Hyundai Motor came in second with 8.47 trillion won in dividends paid to investors over the past five years, followed by SK Group with 7.18 trillion won, the data showed.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)