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Big foreign firms splurge on dividends, scrimp on donations
By a2016032Published : May 11, 2017 - 09:10
Large foreign companies operating in South Korea tend to pay lavish dividends to their head offices, but they are stingy with donations to local charities, data showed Thursday.
According to the data by corporate tracker CEO Score, the dividend payout ratio of 44 large companies in South Korea stood at 75.9 percent with 2.69 trillion won ($2.37 billion) out of their combined net profit of 3.55 trillion won paid to shareholders in 2016 and 2015.
The ratio refers to the percentage of earnings paid to shareholders in dividends. The companies rank among the top 500 companies in South Korea and the data cover fiscal 2016 for 32 firms and 2015 for 12 corporations.
The ratio far exceeds the average dividend payout ratio of 23.6 percent for large South Korean companies.
Volvo Korea posted the highest dividend payout ratio of 192 percent, followed by Tongyang Life Insurance Co. with 170.2 percent, Toshiba Electronics Korea with 153.5 percent. Tong Life was acquired by Chinese insurer Anbang last year.
The foreign companies' hefty dividends were dwarfed by their puny donations, with their total donations coming to a mere 60.4 billion won, or 0.05 percent of 115.8 trillion won in their combined sales.
Apro Financial of Japan, the biggest private moneylender in South Korea, recorded the highest donation-to-sales ratio of 0.33 percent, trailed by tobacco maker Philip Morris Korea with 0.25 percent and Yuhan Kimberly Co., South Korea's top maker of diapers and feminine hygiene products, with 0.22 percent.
The figure for the foreign firms was much lower than the average 0.12 percent for large South Korean companies. (Yonhap)
