Major listed firms' dividends drop 14.4% in 2021

Dividend payouts by South Korea's major listed firms fell more than 14 percent in 2021, but seven paid out more than 1 trillion won ($835 million), a corporate tracker said Tuesday.

The combined amount of dividends by 53 companies, including top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., stood at 28.55 trillion won for fiscal 2021, down 14.4 percent from a year earlier, according to Leaders Index.

The firms cover those that have announced dividends as of Friday out of the country's top 100 listed corporations.

The decline was attributed to a tumble in Samsung's dividend payouts. Samsung's dividends plunged nearly 51 percent on-year to 9.81 trillion won.

Excluding Samsung, those companies' dividend payouts surged 44.2 percent last year from a year earlier.

Samsung and six other firms -- Hyundai Motor Co., Posco, Kia Corp., KB Financial Group Inc., SK hynix Inc. and Shinhan Financial Group Co. -- paid out more than 1 trillion won in dividends.

Despite the on-year nosedive, Samsung was the top dividend-paying firm, followed by leading automaker Hyundai with 1.30 trillion won and top steelmaker Posco with 1.29 trillion won.

Lee Jae-yong, the chief of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, was the top dividend receiver with 257.7 billion won, trailed by his two sisters Boo-jin and Seo-hyun with 117.7 billion won and 86.6 billion won, respectively. (Yonhap)