State pension fund to receive over W1tr in stock dividends from conglomerates

Published : Feb 14, 2017 - 10:31 Updated : Feb 14, 2017 - 10:31

South Korea's state pension fund is expected to receive over 1 trillion won ($869 million) in stock dividends from the country's top 30 conglomerates, sharply up 20 percent from last year's tally, industry data showed Tuesday.

Industry tracker CEO Score analyzed dividend payments planned by the conglomerates-affiliated 97 companies in which the National Pension Service has stakes of over 5 percent.

(Yonhap)

Of the surveyed firms, 65 firms announced their stock dividend payment plans, with the state pension fund expected to get some 1.057 trillion won in dividends this year, according to the data compiled by CEO Score.

The estimated dividend payment for the NPS is some 20.5 percent higher than last year's 877 billion won, they showed.

By group, top conglomerate Samsung Group will pay a total of 424 billion won in dividends to the NPS this year, accounting for 40.1 percent of the total stock dividends to be delivered to the state pension fund.

The data showed that energy and telecom conglomerate SK Group will deliver 197 billion won in dividends to the NPS this year, up 15.3 percent from a year earlier.

Auto giant Hyundai Motor Group will pay a combined 134 billion won in dividends to the NPS, with the comparable figure for LG Group being 99.4 billion won.

By company, Samsung Electronics Co., the country's most valuable firm, will deliver the largest amount of stock dividends worth 362 billion won to the NPS this year, as the country's tech giant jacked up its stock dividend per share to 28,500 won from 21,000 won this year.

Hyundai Motor Co., the leading automaker in the country, came next with 81 billion won in stock dividends for the NPS, followed by top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. with 67.6 billion won, top refiner SK Innovation Co. with 59 billion won and tobacco maker KT&G with 42.5 billion won.

Meanwhile, the state pension fund plans to invest nearly 10 trillion won in top-cap Samsung Electronics and other domestic stocks this year, raising its stock investments to approximately 110 trillion won, or some 20 percent of its total assets tallied at 545 trillion won as of end-November last year.

As of end-November, the pension fund's exposure to domestic stocks came to 99 trillion won, or 18.2 percent of its total assets under management.

The pension fund posted a return of 5.6 percent from stock investment last year thanks largely to a jump in top-cap Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker and flagship of South Korea's leading family-controlled conglomerate Samsung Group. (Yonhap)