Gov’t dividend income soars over 70 pct this year

The South Korean government's dividend income from its stakes in public companies jumped more than 70 percent on-year on rising earnings by major state-run banks and corporate value-up programs, the finance ministry said Thursday. Dividend payments by 17 state-run companies to the government amounted to 2.13 trillion won (US$1.54 billion) for the 2023 fiscal year, up 72.1 percent from 1.24 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The growth came as dividends from three major state-run banks reached an all-time high amid the improvement in their bottom lines. The Korea Development Bank paid 878.1 billion won in dividends, the largest amount among the public firms, as it reported 2.5 trillion won in net profit last year. The dividends from the Industrial Bank of Korea stood at 466.8 billion won, and those by the Export-Import Bank of Korea came to 184.7 billion won. The Incheon International Airport Corp. paid 224.8 billion won in dividends to the government and the Ko rea Investment Corp. paid 99.4 billion won, the data showed. The increase was also driven by the government's corporate value-up program, which gives incentives to companies for prioritizing shareholder returns and implementing other measures for investors so as to encourage listed companies to strive further for improving their valuation. The average dividend payout ratio, or the percentage of earnings paid to shareholders in dividends, came to 39.87 percent this year, down slightly from 39.93 percent a year earlier. Of the 40 state companies in which the government holds stakes, 23 public firms, including the power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp., did not pay out dividends due to net losses, according to the ministry. Source: Yonhap News Agency