Last Year’s Listed Companies Paid 37.75 Trillion Won in Dividends, Up 17% from Previous Year

Last year, dividends paid by listed companies increased by 17% compared to the previous year.

Korea Securities Depository

According to the Korea Securities Depository on May 28, the number of listed companies that paid year-end dividends for the fiscal year ended last year was 1,246, with the total dividend amounting to 37.7519 trillion won, up 16.9% from the previous year. Of these, 577 companies listed on the KOSPI market paid out 34.6802 trillion won, a 15.6% increase from the previous year, while 669 companies listed on the KOSDAQ market paid out 371.7 billion won, up 34.0%.

By industry, the semiconductor manufacturing sector paid out the largest amount of dividends at 5.6924 trillion won. This was followed by holding companies (3.679 trillion won), automobile engine and automobile manufacturing (3.3037 trillion won), and securities brokerage (1.6183 trillion won).

Among the top ten industries by dividend amount, the largest year-on-year increases were in semiconductor manufacturing (1.8449 trillion won), electricity (692.1 billion won), securities brokerage (383.7 billion won), and holding companies (320.9 billion won). In contrast, the automobile engine and automobile manufacturing industry saw a decrease of 822.7 billion won.

In the KOSPI market, Samsung Electronics paid the most dividends to shareholders (3.7535 trillion won), followed by Kia (2.6425 trillion won) and SK hynix (1.3277 trillion won). In the KOSDAQ market, EG Holdings paid the most (87.8 billion won).

By shareholder type, domestic corporations received 15.7209 trillion won in dividends, up 17.2% from the previous year, while foreign shareholders received 11.886 trillion won, a 21.3% increase. Domestic individual investors received 10.145 trillion won, up 11.6%. Among domestic individual shareholders, those in their 50s received the largest share at 3.3789 trillion won (33.3%), followed by those in their 60s at 2.5424 trillion won (25.0%), those 70 and older at 2.0144 trillion won (19.9%), and those in their 40s at 1.4461 trillion won (14.3%).

For listed companies with fiscal year ending December 2025, the proportion of total dividends paid to foreign shareholders was 31.5%, up 1.2 percentage points from the previous year. By market, the company that paid the most dividends to foreign shareholders was Samsung Electronics (2.0556 trillion won) in the KOSPI market and Classys (47 billion won) in the KOSDAQ market. By nationality, U.S. shareholders received the most in dividends (5.0152 trillion won), followed by the United Kingdom (1.399 trillion won) and Luxembourg (77.2 billion won).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.