Foreign asset managers in South Korea pay more dividend than income

Foreign asset management companies in South Korea paid more dividend than income, showing higher propensity to dividend than domestic asset managers, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday. Dividend payout ratio, or the rate of dividend payment to net income, for foreign asset managers averaged 106.7 percent over the past three fiscal years, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The figure was higher than 57.2 percent on average for domestic asset managers, indicating that shareholders of foreign asset management firms favored retrieval of invested money rather than leaving income as reserves that will be used to invest in new growth engines. Among a total of 84 asset managers, 28 companies paid 204.8 billion won (183 million U.S. dollars) in dividend in the fiscal year 2012. The payout ratio on average was 66.6 percent in 2012, down 13 percentage points from a year earlier, but higher than an average of 17 percent for all listed firms.