Study: German companies pay record dividends to shareholders

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – According to a study, stock exchange companies in Germany want to pay record dividends to their shareholders. The companies from the HDax are likely to pay out the maximum value of a good 57 billion euros for the 2021 financial year, according to an evaluation published by DZ Bank on Tuesday. That is around a third more than for the crisis year 2020 (42.5 billion). The German stock market has finally left the Corona low behind, the authors wrote. The HDax includes the companies from the Dax (DAX 40), MDAX and TecDAX.

After many companies cut dividends during the pandemic, more than 60 percent of the companies observed would now increase their profit distributions for 2021, the study said – despite many new risks such as high inflation, supply bottlenecks and the Ukraine war. In the case of listed companies, the shareholders decide on the dividend at the general meeting – but that’s a formality.

According to the study, the lion’s share of dividends comes from the automotive, industrial and insurance sectors, which alone account for more than half of the profit distributions. Only four percent of HDax members wanted to cut their dividends. According to the authors, dividends are evidence of sustainably successful business models and remain an essential part of long-term wealth accumulation for investors.

According to the analysis, the car companies dominate the largest dividend payers for 2021: The front runner is the Mercedes-Benz (Mercedes-Benz Group (ex Daimler)) Group with 5.3 billion euros, followed by the insurer Allianz (4.4 billion), BMW and Volkswagen (Volkswagen (VW) vz) (3.8 billion each) and Siemens (3.2 billion)./als/DP/eas