The amount of cash dividends of A-shares has exceeded 2 trillion yuan for two consecutive years.
According to data from Oriental Wealth Choice, in the past 2023, with the continuous improvement of the corporate governance structure and the continuous encouragement of regulatory policies, 3,495 A-share listed companies have paid dividends, with a total dividend amount of 2.03 trillion yuan (with the ex-dividend date as the statistical indicator, including the total amount of dividends in the A/H market, the same below), which is basically the same as the cash dividend amount of 2.04 trillion yuan in 2022.
Among them, 30 enterprises have cash dividends of more than 10 billion yuan, and ICBC has become the most dividend-paying company with a cash dividend of 108.169 billion yuan, and it is also the only A-share listed company with a dividend of more than 100 billion yuan.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noticed that in recent years, the regulator has continuously improved the dividend system of listed companies. On December 15, 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the Guidelines for the Supervision of Listed Companies No. 3 - Cash Dividends of Listed Companies (hereinafter referred to as the "Cash Dividend Guidelines") and the Decision on Amending the Guidelines for the Articles of Association of Listed Companies (hereinafter referred to as the "Articles of Association Guidelines"), and the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges simultaneously revised and improved the standardized operation guidelines and clarified the operational requirements (hereinafter collectively referred to as the "New Dividend Rules").
"The total dividends in the A-share market have exceeded 2 trillion yuan for two consecutive years, which means that more and more listed companies have begun to pay attention to rewarding shareholders, and also reflects the increasing maturity and stability of China's capital market. Tian Lihui, dean of the Financial Development Research Institute of Nankai University, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
The industry leader is generous
In terms of sub-markets, 1,557, 1,736 and 182 companies in the three major exchanges of Shanghai, Shenzhen and North China will pay cash dividends in 2023, with dividends of 1.61 trillion yuan, 417.705 billion yuan and 5.377 billion yuan respectively. Among them, the listed companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board and the Growth Enterprise Market achieved cash dividends of 45.336 billion yuan and 90.339 billion yuan respectively.
On the whole, the total cash dividends of A-share listed companies last year have exceeded the total amount of equity financing that year, and the total equity financing in 2023 will be 1.13 trillion yuan, including IPO financing of 356.540 billion yuan and additional issuance financing of 578.951 billion yuan.
In terms of industries, banking, petroleum and petrochemical, coal, food and beverage, and non-bank finance are the top five industries in terms of dividend amounts, with cash dividends of 586.888 billion yuan, 164.135 billion yuan, 139.791 billion yuan, 125.247 billion yuan and 111.555 billion yuan respectively. This is inseparable from the "generous" shot of the industry's leaders.
In addition to ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank also have dividends of 97.254 billion yuan, 77.766 billion yuan, 68.298 billion yuan, 43.832 billion yuan, 27.700 billion yuan and 25.574 billion yuan respectively.
In the petroleum and petrochemical industry, the scale of dividends of the two oils alone exceeded 100 billion - PetroChina (601857. SH) dividends of 78.699 billion yuan, and Sinopec dividends of 40.765 billion yuan.
In addition, for example, Kweichow Moutai, a leading food and beverage company, will pay a dividend of 56.55 billion yuan in 2023 (including a special dividend of 24.001 billion yuan), China Shenhua (601088.SH), a leader in the coal industry, will pay a dividend of 50.665 billion yuan, China Mobile (600941.SH), a leader in the communications industry, will pay a dividend of 44.315 billion yuan, COSCO Shipping Holdings (601919.SH), a shipping leader, will pay a dividend of 30.673 billion yuan, and Ping An of China (601318.SH), a leading insurance company, will pay a dividend of 25.904 billion yuan.
It is worth mentioning that the enthusiasm of private enterprises to pay dividends is not far behind. Among the 3,495 companies that will pay cash dividends in 2023, private enterprises account for more than 6 percent, accounting for 2,246, with a total dividend amount of 378.086 billion yuan.
According to data from the China Association of Listed Companies, private enterprises account for more than 70% of the interim cash dividends in Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies in 2023, and 117 private listed companies will have a total of 16.2 billion yuan in interim cash dividends in 2023, of which 69 private listed companies have a dividend payment ratio of more than 50%.
The dividend mechanism continues to improve
In recent years, the regulator has continuously improved the dividend mechanism of listed companies, and the dividend status of listed companies has continued to improve.
Data show that in the past five years, A-share listed companies have paid a cumulative dividend of 8.2 trillion yuan. The Xi of dividends has gradually developed, and the proportion of participating companies has increased from about 50% ten years ago to about 70%, and the proportion of companies that have paid dividends for five consecutive years has increased from 20% to 48%.
In terms of different markets, the cash dividends of Shanghai companies have nearly doubled from 895.8 billion yuan in 2017 to 1.72 trillion yuan in 2022, and the overall cash dividend ratio of Shanghai has remained above 30% and has increased year by year, reaching 40% in 2022. The average dividend payout ratio of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also increased from 28.3% in 2018 to 32.1% in 2022, with a cumulative dividend of more than 1.74 trillion yuan, and an average annual compound growth rate of 13.35% in the dividend amount, which was higher than the net profit growth rate in the same period.
In 2022, a total of 3,291 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen paid cash dividends, with a dividend amount of 2.04 trillion yuan, exceeding the sum of IPOs and refinancing in that year. In the middle of 2023, there will also be new breakthroughs in the number of dividends and the amount of dividends paid by listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen - in terms of the number of dividends, as of August 31, 2023, a total of 162 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen have announced their 2023 interim cash dividend plans, with the number of dividends increasing by 64% over the same period last year, and 87 listed companies with dividend payout ratios exceeding 50%, an increase of 61% over the same period last year. From the perspective of dividend amount, the 2023 medium-term cash dividend plan is expected to pay dividends of 203.01 billion yuan, and there are 6 companies with total cash dividends of more than 10 billion yuan.
At the same time, the regulatory authorities are also encouraging fund companies to issue dividend fund products to guide market funds to increase their preference for cash dividends of listed companies. According to statistics, as of the end of November 2023, there were 54 domestic dividend index funds, with a total scale of 68.5 billion yuan, with an annualized growth rate of more than 40% in the past three years.
"The increase in the total amount of dividends means that listed companies have more earnings to return to shareholders overall, and it also means that the quality of corporate governance of mainland listed companies has been effectively improved. Rewarding shareholders through dividends will help improve market activity and investor participation, and promote a virtuous cycle in the capital market. At the same time, dividends can also guide investors to establish the concept of long-term investment, reduce market speculation, and promote the maturity and development of China's capital market. Tian Lihui said.
However, some market participants believe that the balance, timeliness, stability and sense of gain of investors in cash dividends of listed companies still need to be improved, and there are some companies with an unusually high proportion of dividends, which may damage the ability to pay debts and continue to operate, and it is necessary to further improve the relevant rules to guide and standardize.
On December 15, 2023, the regulator issued new rules on dividends to further improve the normalized dividend mechanism of listed companies and improve the level of investor returns. Maintain close attention to companies with high asset-liability ratios, poor cash flow from operating activities, and large proportion of cash dividends to prevent adverse effects on the production and operation of enterprises and their ability to repay debts.
Wei Wei, chief strategy analyst of Ping An Securities, said that the new dividend regulations have effectively promoted the importance of cash dividends and further enhanced the stability and certainty of dividends of listed companies. For the A-share market, the new dividend rules further increase the certainty premium of the dividend strategy.
For more information, please download the 21 Finance APP