The shareholder return scale of the top 100 corporations by market capitalization in Korea increased by more than 35% over the past two years.
According to the CEO Score of the Corporate Data Research Institute, the top 100 corporations by market capitalization spent 45.5784 trillion won on shareholder returns last year as of the end of June. This is an increase of 35.2% (11.8544 trillion won) from 33.7240 trillion won in 2022.
Looking at the types of shareholder returns, the total amount of dividends increased by 17% (5.4310 trillion won) from 31.8891 trillion won in 2022 to 37.3201 trillion won last year. During the same period, the scale of stock buybacks surged from 1.8349 trillion won to 8.2583 trillion won, a jump of 350.1% (6.4234 trillion won).
The corporation with the highest total shareholder return ratio against market capitalization last year was KT&G, which recorded a double-digit figure (10%). It was followed by ▲Kiwoom Securities 9.1% ▲Woori Financial Group 9.0% ▲Samsung Securities 8.0% ▲SK Telecom 8.0% ▲NH Investment & Securities 7.9% ▲Hana Financial Group 7.8% ▲Industrial Bank of Korea 7.4% ▲Kia 7.3% ▲Samsung C&T 7.3%.
Conversely, 17 corporations, including Samsung Biologics, LG Energy Solution, Doosan Enerbility, Hanwha Ocean, Alteogen, and Samsung Heavy Industries, had no shareholder returns last year.
The corporation that increased its total shareholder return the most from 2022 to 2024 was HD Hyundai Electric. In contrast, S-Oil saw its shareholder return scale decrease by nearly 98%.