Dividend bonanza for shareholders

Buoyed by a heartening performance in 2004-05, corporate India is in a generous mood over dividend payouts.

A Business Standard Research Bureau study of 573 companies that have declared dividends so far shows that 54 per cent of them have increased their dividend for 2004-05 while another 22 per cent have proposed to maintain the payout at the previous year's level.

This list includes Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which has paid an interim dividend of 200 per cent {Rs 2,852 crore (Rs 28.52 billion)} but has so far not declared its financial results for 2004-05.

These 573 companies have proposed a dividend payout of Rs 26,064 crore (Rs 260.64 billion) for 2004-05.

Promoters, the largest stakeholders, will take home 55.45 per cent of this {Rs 14,452 crore (Rs `44.52 billion)} as dividend while foreign institutional investors take home a 13.08 per cent share {Rs 3,410 crore (Rs 34.1 billion)} as dividend.

Thirty-four firms, including Chemfab Alkalies, NMDC, Asian Hotels, English Indian Clays, Hawkins Cookers, Bajaj Electricals, Emami and Elecon Engineering, have doubled their rate of dividend payout.

Forty-eight companies have declared 50 per cent more dividend than what they had paid last year.

Eighty-one firms, include Automobile Corporation of Goa, KSL & Industries, Parry Agro, Mahindra Ugine, Torrent Cables, Murli Agro Products, Modern Steels, Steelcast and Rathi Ispat Hotels, have announced interim dividends between 15 and 80 per cent against no dividend last year.

After a gap of eight years, Steel Authority of India has declared a 33 per cent dividend, including a 15 per cent interim dividend.

The company last paid a 1 per cent dividend in March 1998.

Indian Oil Corporation is the second biggest dividend payer, with a payout of Rs 1,694 crore (Rs 16.94 billion). In the private sector, Reliance Industries is the largest dividend payer at Rs 1,046 crore (Rs 10.46 billion) against Rs 733.10 crore (Rs 7.33 billion) last year.

The other top dividend payers in the private sector include ITC with Rs 773.23 crore (Rs 7.73 billion), Tata Steel {Rs 719.77 crore (Rs 7.2 billion)}, ICICI Bank {Rs 626.26 crore (Rs 6.26 billion)}, Tata Motors {Rs 452.24 crore (Rs 4.52 billion)}, HDFC {Rs 423.50 crore (Rs 4.23 billion)} and Hero Honda Motors {Rs 399.40 crore (Rs 3.99 billion)}.

The public sector companies in the same category are State Bank of India {Rs 657.88 crore (Rs 6.58 billion)}, HPCL {Rs 508.40 crore (Rs 5.08 billion)} and BPCL {Rs 375 crore (Rs 3.75 billion)}