First-quarter dividends paid exceed $326 billion worldwide, a record

The amount of dividends paid worldwide in the first quarter rose 12% year-on-year to reach a new record, thanks in particular to large exceptional payments from automotive groups, according to a study published Wednesday. Payments to shareholders amounted to $326.7 billion between January and March, after already a record in 2022, driven by banks, oil producers and automakers, which offset the decline in profits of mining groups.

Special dividend payouts reached $28.8 billion in the first quarter, "their second-highest level ever" (after the first quarter of 2014), according to the report by asset manager Janus Henderson. "Ford and Volkswagen accounted for nearly a third of the extraordinary dividends" of the first three months of the year and "the dividends paid by the automotive sector were ten times larger" than last year, notes the Janus Henderson statement.

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The France, far from a record

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Volkswagen caused a stir in the first quarter, paying a special dividend of $6.3 billion thanks to proceeds from Porsche's IPO at the end of last year," the report added. Ben Lofthouse, head of Janus Henderson's global equity team, said the momentum of dividend increases "is all the more impressive as 2022 has been a challenging year for the global economy with high inflation, rising interest rates, conflicts and continued lockdowns in the face of Covid-19."

In France, luxury groups Hermès and Kering helped boost dividend growth, excluding exceptional items, to 11.6%, with €2.8 billion, out of a total of $3 billion paid by French companies, far from a record, during a quarter usually calm in terms of dividends. The first-quarter dividend champion was Danish shipping group Moller Maersk, which distributed $11.7 billion, "of which just over half in the form of an extraordinary dividend," reflecting a record net profit in 2022, thanks to higher container freight prices.

For the year 2023 as a whole, Janus Henderson is raising its forecast and "now expects overall dividends to amount to $1640 billion, which equates to overall growth of 5.2%". Another way to remunerate shareholders, share buybacks also reached a record in 2022.