Author丨Cui Wenjing
Editor丨Bao Fangming
Figure source丨Figure worm
Since 2023, with the continuous promotion of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the situation of weak dividends and write-off buybacks has improved. The new "National Nine Articles" issued a few days ago once again clearly increased the dividends and repurchases of listed companies, and issued risk warnings for those with insufficient dividends. Since then, the enthusiasm of listed companies for dividends has increased significantly.
According to Wind data, as of 16 o'clock on April 23, 11 days after the release of the new "National Nine Articles", 100 listed companies have added cancellation repurchase plans, and as many as 1,098 listed companies have issued dividend plans.
In the opinion of the interviewees, this means that the regulatory policies on dividends and buybacks in the new "National Nine Articles" and a series of supporting measures have begun to show their effect. It is worth noting that some listed companies that have not paid dividends for many years and originally announced no dividends this year have also added dividend plans after the release of the new "National Nine Articles", such as Jilin Expressway.
"With the increase in the guidance, encouragement and supervision and restraint of regulatory policy measures, it is expected that more listed companies will respond to relevant policy requirements, and follow-up dividends are expected to show more positive changes. Yan Xiang, chief economist of Huafu Securities, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
More than seventy percent of listed companies disclose dividend plans
The new "National Nine Articles" are clear: strengthen the supervision of cash dividends of listed companies. For companies that have not paid dividends for many years or have a low proportion of dividends, major shareholders are restricted from reducing their holdings and risk warnings are implemented. Increase incentives for high-quality companies that pay dividends, and take multiple measures to promote the increase in dividend yields. Enhance the stability, sustainability and predictability of dividends, and promote multiple dividends a year, pre-dividends, and dividends before the Spring Festival.
Some industry insiders predict that under the new regulatory policy, the dividends of listed companies will inevitably increase significantly.
Judging from the 2023 annual report, according to Wind data statistics, as of 16 o'clock on April 23, only 11 days after the release of the new "National Nine Articles", 1,098 listed companies have released dividend plans, and a total of 2,144 listed companies have released 2023 annual dividend plans during the year, accounting for more than seventy percent of the listed companies that have disclosed their 2023 annual reports. In addition to the 2023 annual dividend plan, about 1/4 of the listed companies have not taken dividend measures in the past three years. This means that after the release of the new "National Nine Articles", a large number of listed companies with little dividends in the past took the initiative to join the dividend team.
It is worth paying special attention to the fact that some listed companies that have been profitable for many years but do not pay dividends, and have officially announced that they will not pay dividends in 2023 before the release of the new "National Nine Articles", will adjust their announcements and announce annual dividends after the release of the new "National Nine Articles".
Jilin Expressway is a typical case. On April 19, it adjusted the profit distribution plan, from the previous "no profit distribution, no cash dividends, no share gifts and capital reserve to increase share capital" was adjusted to "cash dividend of 0.90 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares".
"Jilin Expressway dividends of 9 yuan per hand (100 shares), which is relatively small. Considering that it has not paid dividends for many years and has no dividend plan before, it is rare for it to be able to pay dividends so strongly. An industry insider told reporters.
The role of the new dividend regulations is highlighted, in addition to the new dividend plans of listed companies that originally did not pay dividends, it is also reflected in the increase in the dividend intensity of a single listed company.
Judging from the 1,098 listed companies that added dividend plans at 16 o'clock from April 12 to April 23, Kweichow Moutai is far ahead in terms of dividend scale, with a dividend of 30.876 yuan per share, which means that investors will receive a dividend package of 3087.60 yuan for every 1 hand (100 shares) of Kweichow Moutai shares. Nova Nebula's dividend per share is also higher at 9.7 yuan, and investors can receive a dividend of 970 yuan for each hand of Nova Nebula.
Xingqi Ophthalmology, Transsion Holdings, No. 9 Company - WD, Dongpeng Beverage, Pien Tze Huang, Chunfeng Power, and Yirui Technology also have a dividend amount of more than 200 yuan per hand. There are 58 listed companies with a dividend amount of more than 100 yuan, 228 companies with a dividend amount of more than 50 yuan, and 1026 companies with a dividend amount of more than 10 yuan, accounting for 5.28%, 20.77%, and 93.44% respectively.
"In recent years, A-share listed companies have paid significant attention to dividends, and the cumulative dividend amount of A-share listed companies in 2023 has exceeded 1.7 trillion yuan. Yan Xiang analyzed.
The write-off repurchase plan has increased
After the issuance of the new "National Nine Articles", the enthusiasm of listed companies has increased significantly in addition to the field of dividends, as well as repurchases, especially the cancellation repurchase encouraged by policies.
According to Wind statistics, as of 16:00 on April 23, among the 139 listed companies that have added repurchase plans since April 12, 100 companies have repurchased and cancelled for the purpose of repurchase, accounting for 71.94%. Among them, among the 34 listed companies that issued share repurchase plans from April 22 to April 23 at 16 o'clock, only 5 of them were not for the purpose of cancellation.
Among the 100 repurchases of listed companies for the purpose of cancellation, from the perspective of the repurchase amount, Hikvision has the most sincerity, which launched a repurchase plan with a scale of up to 2.894 billion yuan on April 20, and the repurchase scale is far ahead; the repurchase scale of massive data ranks second with 550 million yuan; the repurchase scale of Dongcai Technology, Lifan Technology and Venustech is also more than 100 million yuan, which is 126 million yuan, 112 million yuan and 101 million yuan respectively.
Write-off buybacks are seen as the most investor-friendly way to buy back shares. According to industry analysts, compared with the use of employee stock ownership plans and equity incentives, the repurchase of shares for cancellation, on the one hand, can better demonstrate the company's high recognition of its own value and full confidence in future development prospects; on the other hand, after the cancellation of shares, the reduction of market flow shares, theoretically contribute to the increase of distributable profits per share, which is conducive to the improvement of investors' returns. Therefore, the role of write-off repurchase in stabilizing and recovering the capital market is also more obvious.
It is worth noting that for listed companies, cancellation repurchase is the most costly share repurchase method, and it is for this reason that many listed companies have launched share repurchase plans in the past, but the proportion for the purpose of cancellation is quite small. Why is the proportion of cancellated repurchases significantly increased after the issuance of the new "National Nine Articles", just because the regulator encourages repurchase and cancellation?
In this regard, industry insiders said that the reason why the enthusiasm of listed companies for repurchase and cancellation has increased greatly is that the new rules on dividends are clear, and the amount of repurchase and cancellation is included in the calculation of cash dividends. This means that if a listed company takes the initiative to carry out a write-off repurchase, it can not only respond to the advocacy of regulatory repurchases, but also better meet the requirements of the bottom line of dividends. Driven by interests, the enthusiasm of listed companies to repurchase and cancel has naturally increased greatly.
Promote listed companies to give back to investors
A number of industry insiders said that whether it is a write-off repurchase or a dividend, it is good for investors. Focusing on the interests of investors, giving better feedback to investors, and strengthening the investment attributes of China's capital market are the current priorities of supervision. Many of the contents of the new "National Nine Articles" and its supporting measures also revolve around this.
Among them, the inclusion of companies that have not paid dividends for many years or have a low dividend ratio into the "implementation of other risk warnings" (ST) is a great deterrent to listed companies to increase dividends. On January 1, 2025, listed companies that do not meet the dividend standards will be ST.
At the same time, the reporter learned that since the middle of last year, the regulator has interviewed the "iron rooster" who has not paid dividends for many years and has paid small dividends, and encouraged listed companies to actively repurchase and cancel them.
"The superposition of the two has greatly increased the enthusiasm of listed companies for dividends and repurchases after the new 'National Nine Articles'. As the official implementation date of the new dividend regulations approaches, the intensity of dividends and cancellation repurchases of listed companies will be further increased. The interviewee said.
The interviewee further analyzed that behind the dividends and buybacks is the protection of investors' interests. In the future, the mandatory delisting system, diversified investor rights protection methods, and the severe punishment system for violations of laws and regulations of listed companies represented by financial fraud will also be further improved, so as to maximize the interests of investors in an all-round way.
SFC
Editor: Liu Xueying, Intern: Huang Lihong
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