SEOUL, May 28 (AJP) - Foreign investors collected a larger share of dividends from South Korean listed companies than domestic individual investors did last year, drawing 11.89 trillion won ($7.9 billion) as record corporate payouts — swollen by the semiconductor boom — flowed disproportionately to overseas shareholders.
Total dividends paid by companies with December fiscal years reached 37.75 trillion won, up 16.9 percent from a year earlier, according to data released Thursday by the Korea Securities Depository. Of that sum, foreign shareholders received 31.5 percent, a share that rose 21.3 percent in value from the previous year, while domestic individual investors received 10.15 trillion won, or a smaller slice, up 11.6 percent. Domestic corporations remained the largest single recipient, taking 15.72 trillion won, or 41.6 percent of the total.
The widening foreign share reflects the same force driving this year's equity rally: the dominance of the chipmakers. Semiconductor manufacturing accounted for the largest block of dividends by sector, at 5.69 trillion won, or 15.1 percent of the total, and it is precisely the chip heavyweights, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, in which foreign investors hold their heaviest positions. As the AI memory cycle has lifted both earnings and payouts, much of the benefit has accrued to shareholders abroad.
A total of 1,246 companies paid year-end dividends, comprising 577 firms on the main KOSPI market, which paid 34.68 trillion won, and 669 on the junior KOSDAQ, which paid 3.07 trillion won. KOSDAQ payouts stood out for their pace of growth, climbing 34 percent from a year earlier.
Samsung Electronics led all companies, distributing 3.75 trillion won, the most on the main market. It was followed by Kia at 2.64 trillion won, SK hynix at 1.33 trillion won, Samsung Life Insurance at 952 billion won, and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance at 829 billion won. On the KOSDAQ, EG Holdings paid the most, at 88 billion won. By sector, holding companies ranked second behind semiconductors at 3.68 trillion won, followed by automobile and engine manufacturing at 3.30 trillion won, while brokerage payouts rose sharply to 1.62 trillion won.
Among domestic individuals, the dividends skewed heavily toward older investors. Those in their 50s received the most, at 3.38 trillion won, followed by investors in their 60s at 2.54 trillion won and those 70 and older at 2.01 trillion won. Together, shareholders in their 50s and 60s collected 58.4 percent of all dividends paid to individuals — a concentration that underscores how equity wealth in Korea remains held largely by older generations.
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