Dividend Amount Reporting Enables Investment Decisions... 636 Listed Companies Prepare for Procedure Improvements

Financial Supervisory Service, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

From now on, investors will be able to decide whether to invest in a company by reviewing the dividend amount determined at the shareholders' meeting.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 5th, on January 31, the Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Justice prepared improvement measures to align the dividend system of domestic companies with global standards.

Through authoritative interpretations of the Commercial Act and amendments to individual company articles of incorporation, it is now possible to set different dates for the record date for voting rights at the shareholders' meeting and the dividend record date at the time of dividend settlement. This allows the dividend amount to be finalized first, and then the dividend record date to be set. Even if stock trading occurred before the final dividend amount was confirmed, investors can now know whether dividends will be paid and the amount, enabling informed investment decisions.

Currently, among 2,267 listed companies with December fiscal year-end, 636 companies (28.1%) have completed revising their articles of incorporation and are prepared to improve dividend procedures. The FSS stated that these listed companies need to determine the shareholders eligible for dividends after finalizing the dividend amount through the shareholders' meeting according to the amended articles of incorporation.

The FSS explained, "Until now, it has been customary to unify the shareholders exercising voting rights at the regular shareholders' meeting and the shareholders receiving dividends as year-end shareholders, but from the end of this year, many companies will set these dates differently. Investors must check when the dividend record date is and how much the dividend amount is before making investment decisions related to dividends."

The Korea Listed Companies Association and the KOSDAQ Association plan to provide pages on their respective websites to guide the dividend record dates of listed companies, making it easier to understand the dividend record date, dividend decision date, and types of dividends of the companies they invest in. Additionally, they plan to strengthen verification by the Korea Exchange and the Korea Securities Depository to ensure accurate dividend information is disclosed.

An FSS official said, "We plan to provide incentives when selecting excellent disclosure companies to listed companies that voluntarily improve dividend procedures by revising their articles of incorporation," adding, "We will support listed companies to proactively disclose that the dividend record date is not the fiscal year-end to prevent dividend investment errors."

They also added, "When the Capital Markets Act is amended to improve quarterly dividend procedures in the future, the improvements will be reflected in the standard articles of incorporation and guidance will be provided."

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