On April 11, the notice on further supporting the healthy development of listed companies issued by the CSRC, the SASAC and the all China Federation of industry and Commerce pointed out that the SASAC, in accordance with the principle of facilitating enterprises, actively guided and supported the share repurchase and cash dividend of state-controlled listed companies, and guided state-controlled listed companies to become an example to promote the stable development of the capital market.
Recently, with the intensive disclosure of the annual reports of listed companies, the reporter noted that more and more listed companies, especially state-controlled listed companies, have come up with a large amount of “real gold and silver” to repay investors. According to the data, as of April 11, among 1495 A-share companies that have disclosed their annual reports, 1136 plan to pay cash dividends, accounting for about 76%; The total amount of cash dividends is about 1.21 trillion yuan. Among them, there are 463 state-controlled listed companies.
Many industry experts interviewed by the reporter of Securities Daily believe that the increase in the proportion of cash dividends of listed companies reflects the positive guidance of regulatory authorities in recent years, which has achieved remarkable results. To a certain extent, it also reflects the increasing awareness of listed companies to repay investors.
Data show that among the 1136 companies mentioned above, there are 21 companies with a dividend scale of more than 10 billion yuan. In addition to 10 banks and 2 insurance companies, the other 9 are state-controlled listed companies of the state-owned assets supervision system, including two “new customers” – China Mobile and China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) .
In an interview with Securities Daily, Yang Jie, chairman and party secretary of China Mobile, said that China Mobile’s return to A-share listing can better promote the transformation and upgrading of the company, improve the level of corporate governance and build a good enterprise development pattern.
If we look at the nature of 1136 companies that intend to pay cash dividends, there are 463 state-controlled listed companies alone, accounting for about 40.76%. Specifically, it includes 190 central enterprises holding listed companies, 151 provincial holding listed companies, 114 prefectural and municipal state-owned assets holding listed companies and 8 other state-owned companies.
Dong zhongyun, chief economist of AVIC securities, said in an interview with the Securities Daily that the generous and large proportion of cash dividends of state-controlled listed companies have benefited from the continuous improvement of the dividend system in recent years. At the same time, the increased requirements of the regulatory authorities for the active market value management of state-owned enterprises have also strengthened the dividend power of state-controlled listed companies; On the other hand, this also shows that these state-controlled listed companies had strong profitability, competitive advantage and abundant cash flow last year; In addition, large dividends also reflect the responsibility and responsibility spirit of state-owned enterprises.
According to the data, 359 of the above 1495 companies chose not to pay cash dividends. Among them, there are 229 companies that have not paid cash dividends for three consecutive years.
Northeast Securities Co.Ltd(000686) chief strategist Deng Lijun said in an interview with the reporter of Securities Daily that there are two main reasons why some listed companies do not or do not pay dividends for a long time: first, some scientific and technological innovation enterprises in the early stage of development may lack profit surplus and are difficult to pay dividends; Second, the company chooses to invest its profits in new projects. If it chooses not to pay dividends, it will make more profits for shareholders.
In Dong zhongyun’s view, whether listed companies choose cash dividends and how to determine a reasonable dividend proportion depends on the company’s situation. The company needs to determine it in combination with its own development stage and strategic planning. For growth enterprises, enterprises planning to make huge capital expenditure and enterprises with tight cash flow, dividends can indeed not be paid in the short term for the long-term development of the company. However, if the company does not pay dividends for a long time, it will also have obvious disadvantages for listed companies: first, the company continues not to pay dividends, which often means that the management does not pay attention to the return needs of investors, or the operating ability and profitability are poor. In either case, it will affect the confidence and attraction of long-term investment for investors, and the lack of investor confidence will further lead to the decline of the company’s share price; Second, the decline in the attractiveness of listed companies to investors will also affect the financing ability of enterprises, and then affect the long-term development of enterprises.
