Major Corporate Executives Increase Dividend Payments

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon]The Samsung Group's Lee Kun-hee and Lee Jae-yong have once again ranked first and second in individual dividends this year.

The rankings from first to ninth remained the same as last year, with Koo Bon-joon, LG Group Advisor, newly entering the top 10.

According to CEO Score (CEO Park Joo-geun), a corporate evaluation site, among 2,355 listed companies, 658 companies that announced dividends (quarterly, interim, final) by the 21st reported a total dividend amount of 27.9396 trillion KRW for the 2019 fiscal year.

Limiting to 534 companies that paid dividends for three consecutive years, the dividend amount was 26.7044 trillion KRW, a 3.21% (884.4 billion KRW) decrease compared to the previous year (27.5888 trillion KRW).

However, this year's dividend decrease is interpreted as a base effect caused by companies significantly increasing their 2018 final dividends last year in response to government demands for dividend expansion and shareholder rights strengthening movements by funds such as the National Pension Service.

In fact, the dividend amount of these 534 companies increased by 20.4% (4.6747 trillion KRW) from 22.9142 trillion KRW in the 2017 final settlement to 27.5888 trillion KRW in the 2018 final settlement.

The top individual dividend recipient was Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, with 474.8 billion KRW. Chairman Lee has led dividend earnings for 11 consecutive years since first ranking first in dividends in 2009.

Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, ranked second with 142.6 billion KRW. The only individuals receiving over 100 billion KRW in dividends were these two family members.

Following them were Chung Mong-koo, Chairman of Hyundai Motor (93.3 billion KRW), Chung Mong-joon, Chairman of Asan Foundation (77.7 billion KRW), Hong Ra-hee (76.7 billion KRW), Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK (64.9 billion KRW), Chung Eui-sun, Executive Vice Chairman of Hyundai Motor (60.8 billion KRW), Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG (56.9 billion KRW), Cho Jung-ho, Chairman of Meritz Financial Group (54.5 billion KRW), and Koo Bon-joon, LG Group Advisor (29.3 billion KRW), all included in the top 10.

Among the top 10 individual dividend recipients, only Koo Bon-joon changed rank compared to last year.

Advisor Koo holds a 7.72% stake in LG Corp., and as LG Corp.'s dividend per share increased from 2,000 KRW to 2,200 KRW, his dividend amount rose from 26.6 billion KRW to 29.3 billion KRW, moving him up from 13th place last year to 10th.

Koo Kwang-mo, who holds a 15.0% stake in LG Corp., also saw a 10% increase from 51.8 billion KRW to 56.9 billion KRW.

On the other hand, Lee Kun-hee's daughters, Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, who were tied for 10th last year with 28.2 billion KRW each, dropped to joint 11th place.

Samsung Electronics maintained an overwhelming first place in total corporate dividends with 9.6192 trillion KRW. Hyundai Motor ranked second with 1.0535 trillion KRW.

Last year, SK Hynix also paid dividends of 1.026 trillion KRW, making three companies paying over 1 trillion KRW in dividends, but this year SK Hynix's dividends decreased by 33.3% to 684 billion KRW.

Other companies following were Shinhan Financial Group (883.9 billion KRW), KB Financial Group (861.1 billion KRW), POSCO (801.2 billion KRW), SK Telecom (730.1 billion KRW), SK Hynix (684 billion KRW), Hana Financial Group (616.5 billion KRW), KT&G (557 billion KRW), and Woori Financial Group (505.6 billion KRW).

The company with the highest dividend yield was Dongyang Expressway at 16.9%, followed by Korea Investors Service (14.3%) and Woongjin ThinkBig (12.6%), all exceeding 10%.

Others included UIEL (7.4%), Ssangyong Cement (7.0%), Samyang Optics (6.8%), Orange Life (6.77%), Pureun Savings Bank (6.73%), CMS Edu (6.5%), Jinyang Holdings, SeAH Special Steel, Jinyang Industry (each 6.4%), Taekyung Industry (6.2%), AJ Networks (6.1%), Hyosung (6.0%), Woori Financial Group and Hyundai Motor Securities (5.8%), Doosan Corp. (5.7%), Hana Financial Group and iMarketKorea (each 5.6%).