Listed companies’ 2023 dividends tally 593bn

More than 580 listed Thai companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) paid combined dividends worth 593 billion baht last year, down from 611 billion in 2022, mainly attributed to lower profits.

In 2023, 823 listed Thai companies reported a total net profit of 947 billion baht, a decrease of 2.6% from the previous year, according to a release from the SET.

However, the value of dividend payments from listed companies has grown by an average of 4.49% per year over the past decade.

For the dividend payment season, running from March to May 2023, listed companies paid dividends a total of 530 times, accounting for 62.9% of the total dividend payments in 2023.

May saw the most dividend payments, both in terms of number of payments and value of dividends paid.

The highest dividend payment was 449 times, accounting for 53.3% of the total number of dividend payments in 2023, said the SET.

Each year there is another dividend payment period in September. In September 2023, there were a total of 175 dividend payments, some 20.8% of the number of dividend payments last year.

The top three sectors for dividend payments were energy and utilities, banks, and information and communications technology.

The energy and utilities sector paid the highest dividends to shareholders with a total value of more than 138 billion baht, followed by banking firms doling out 131 billion.

As for companies listed on the Market for Alternative Investment, dividend payments totalled 7.18 billion baht last year.

According to the SET, dividend payment statistics of companies listed on the Thai stock market is basic information for investors to know the timing of dividend payments for their selection of dividend stocks and the timing for purchasing dividend stocks to add to their investment portfolios.

As a result, investors would receive good returns in the form of dividends.