This Year's Semiannual Dividends Decrease by Over 20%... 60% Drop Excluding Samsung Electronics

Semiannual dividends fall below 30 trillion won for the first time in 3 years since 2017

Photo by Getty Images Bank

[Asia Economy Reporter Geum Bo-ryeong] The semi-annual (June) dividends of domestic listed companies have decreased by more than 20% compared to last year. In particular, excluding Samsung Electronics, the amount was less than half.

According to financial information company FnGuide on the 7th, the total semi-annual dividends of listed companies this year amounted to 2.9208 trillion KRW. Considering that it was 3.7128 trillion KRW last year, it decreased by 21.3% (792 billion KRW).

This is the first time in three years since 2017 (2.1175 trillion KRW) that semi-annual dividends have fallen below 3 trillion KRW. In 2018, it was 3.5514 trillion KRW, and last year it increased to 3.7128 trillion KRW.

The quarterly dividends in March were 2.6315 trillion KRW, down 4.2% from last year (2.7464 trillion KRW), but the decline in semi-annual dividends was even greater.

Excluding Samsung Electronics, this year’s semi-annual dividends dropped to less than half compared to last year. It decreased by 60%, from 1.3082 trillion KRW last year to 516.2 billion KRW this year.

The number of dividend-paying companies decreased from 49 last year to 46 this year. It was confirmed that the decline was larger as most major companies either did not pay or reduced their semi-annual dividends. In June last year, Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis paid 263 billion KRW and 94.7 billion KRW respectively, but they did not pay semi-annual dividends this year. Among 15 listed companies that paid large semi-annual dividends last year, including SK Innovation, Doosan Bobcat, Lotte Holdings, Coway, and S-Oil, more than half?8 companies?did not pay semi-annual dividends this year.

POSCO paid 160.2 billion KRW last year but paid only 39.9 billion KRW this year, about a quarter of last year’s amount. Hana Financial Group (150 billion KRW → 145.8 billion KRW), SK (56.4 billion KRW → 52.9 billion KRW), and Hanon Systems (42.7 billion KRW → 36.3 billion KRW) also reduced their dividends.

On the other hand, SK Telecom increased its dividends to 73.1 billion KRW, up from 71.9 billion KRW last year. Ssangyong Cement’s semi-annual dividends also rose by about 10%, from 50.5 billion KRW last year to 55.4 billion KRW this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.