Foreign-controlled firms pay more dividends

SEOUL, July 10 (Yonhap) -- Foreign-controlled listed companies in South Korea paid much more dividends to their stockholders last year than other publicly traded firms, industry data showed Sunday.
The dividend payout ratio came to 29.5 percent last year for listed companies, whose largest shareholders are foreign investors, according to data by FnGuide Inc., a financial information provider, and the Korea Listed Companies Association.
The ratio, the percentage of earnings paid to shareholders in dividends, was nearly twice the average 16.25 percent for all companies listed on the country's main stock market.
As of December last year, foreign-controlled listed companies numbered 17, of which 12 had a dividend payout ratio higher than average.
Hankook Shell Oil Co., the local unit of global oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc, recorded the highest dividend payout ratio of 86.24 percent, followed by Korea Exchange Bank with 68.51 percent.
Meanwhile, listed companies in South Korea paid a combined 4.97 trillion won (US$4.7 billion) in dividends to foreign investors last year, or 36.8 percent of their total dividend payouts of 13.49 trillion won, according to the data.
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