The 'Distribution Dividend King' is CJ Chairman Lee Jae-hyun... Surpassed Chairman Shin Dong-bin Again

CJ Chairman Lee Jae-hyun's Dividend Expected at 37.2 Billion Won This Year
CJ Dividend Up 16% from Last Year
Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin's Dividend 32.6 Billion Won... 5 Billion Won Gap

Lee Jae-hyun, chairman of CJ Group, is expected to maintain his position as the number one in the distribution industry by receiving more than 37 billion KRW solely from dividends, known as the '13th month salary' for large conglomerate owners. As the dividend amount of the holding company increased, the gap with Shin Dong-bin, chairman of Lotte Group, who ranks second, widened again.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 7th, Chairman Lee will receive a total dividend of about 37.2 billion KRW from CJ, the group's holding company, and two listed affiliates for the last fiscal year. Although CJ CGV and CJ ENM, major affiliates, did not pay dividends due to deteriorating performance, the total dividend amount increased by about 16% from 31.1 billion KRW the previous year.

This is due to the effect of increasing the dividend per common share of CJ, in which Chairman Lee holds more than 42% of shares, from 2,500 KRW last year to 3,000 KRW. He owns 12,275,574 shares (42.07%) of CJ common stock. The dividends he will receive amount to about 36.8 billion KRW. The increase in CJ's dividend amount is interpreted to be influenced by the performance rebound of CJ Olive Young. Olive Young recorded cumulative sales of 2.7971 trillion KRW and operating profit of 274.2 billion KRW up to the third quarter of last year, surpassing the previous year's sales (2.7809 trillion KRW) and operating profit (271.4 billion KRW) in just three quarters. CJ holds 51.15% of Olive Young's shares. Previously, Olive Young also set a total dividend of 99.8 billion KRW in 2022, more than tripling the previous year's 30.1 billion KRW, strengthening its dividend payout ratio by achieving record-high performance.

Yang Il-woo, a researcher at Samsung Securities, said in a recent report, "Among the eight major holding companies analyzed, CJ is the only company whose dividend per share exceeded the consensus (forecast: 2,568 KRW) by more than 10%," adding, "Since more than half of CJ's dividend income is expected to be generated from CJ Olive Young, the dividend growth trend is likely to continue."

Chairman Lee also receives about 390 million KRW in dividends from CJ CheilJedang, where he holds 70,931 shares (0.43%), with a dividend per share set at 5,500 KRW last year. CJ CheilJedang raised its dividend per share to 5,000 KRW in 2021 and introduced quarterly dividends from 2022, paying 1,000 KRW per share for the first to third quarters and 2,500 KRW for the fourth quarter. Additionally, CJ Freshway set its dividend per share at 450 KRW, 100 KRW higher than the previous year, resulting in an additional 31.5 million KRW dividend for Chairman Lee, who holds 70,000 shares (0.59%).

The owner who will receive the second-highest dividend in the distribution industry after Chairman Lee is Shin Dong-bin, who will receive a total of about 32.6 billion KRW from four listed group companies including Lotte Holdings. This is about a 5% increase from 31 billion KRW the previous year. Shin receives about 20.6 billion KRW in dividends from Lotte Holdings, where he holds 81,354 preferred shares (10.1%, 1,550 KRW per share) and 13,683,202 common shares (13.02%, 1,500 KRW per share). At Lotte Shopping, where he owns 2,893,049 shares (10.23%), the dividend per share was set at 3,800 KRW, up 500 KRW from the previous year, resulting in about 11 billion KRW in dividends.

In addition, Shin receives about 500 million KRW in dividends from Lotte Wellfood, where he holds 182,117 shares (1.93%) with a dividend per share of 3,000 KRW, and about 360 million KRW in dividends from Lotte Chilsung. Shin's shares in Lotte Chilsung consist of 63,862 preferred shares (8.24%) and 43,367 common shares (0.47%), with dividends per share of 3,405 KRW and 3,400 KRW respectively. Previously, Shin narrowed the dividend gap with Chairman Lee to about 100 to 200 million KRW in 2021 and 2022, but this year the gap widened again to nearly 5 billion KRW.

The owner with the next highest dividend is Chung Ji-sun, chairman of Hyundai Department Store Group. He will receive about 14.3 billion KRW in dividends, an 83.4% increase from about 7.8 billion KRW the previous year. Hyundai GTF Holdings, where he holds 61,847,333 shares (38.08%), set the dividend per share at 200 KRW, 10 KRW less than the previous year, but the dividend income increased to about 12.4 billion KRW due to an increase in shares held through a paid-in capital increase.

In addition, within Shinsegae Group, Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin will receive the highest dividend of about 10.3 billion KRW. He holds 5,172,911 shares (18.56%) of Emart. Emart's dividend per share remains the same as last year at 2,000 KRW.