Aussie dividends slump almost 40%

While restrictions were lifted in January 2021, in 2020, APRA capped dividends at 50% of profits.

Leading global active asset manager Janus Henderson Investors have said that the economic effects of Covid-19 resulted in three-in-five Australian publicly listed companies withholding or cutting their dividends by up to 40% between April and December 2020.

When looking at the total global reduction in pay-outs, banks accounted for a third of the reduction value because of regulator-enforced banking dividend curtailments. This amount is more than three times the losses of the second worst hit sector, oil producers. Together, Australia, UK and Europe made up over half the total reduction value.

On average, global payouts fell around 12%; the lowest since 2016. Because the world’s banks were in good shape pre-pandemic however, the banking system has soldiered on and not collapsed as some feared.