KUALA LUMPUR (March 22): The slew of special dividends announced by Bursa Malaysia companies towards end-2024 has certainly given the impression that listed companies declared and paid out more dividends to their shareholders for the financial year 2024 (FY2024) than in previous years.

The largesse has been attributed to the 2% dividend tax that took effect on Jan 1, 2025. Special dividends had been a key feature in FY2024, especially during the July-to-September quarterly earnings announcements in November.

“We do see a high percentage of Malaysian corporates declaring higher dividend payments by the end of 2024. This was probably triggered by the 2% tax on dividend income exceeding RM100,000 received by individual shareholders, effective from Year of Assessment 2025,” notes TA Investment chief investment officer Choo Swee Kee.

Among the top 100 companies on Bursa Malaysia by market capitalisation, 57 declared higher total dividend per share (DPS) in FY2024 than in FY2023. At the same time, 20 companies declared lower total DPS over the same period. A total of 16 companies paid the same amount of DPS in both FY2024 and FY2023 while seven companies did not declare any dividends over the last two financial years.

Data compiled by The Edge showed that Nestlé (Malaysia) Bhd (KL:NESTLE) continued to lead the pack in total DPS declared in FY2024, amounting to RM1.79, or a 100.99% payout ratio.

There were also five other companies that announced a total DPS of at least RM1 for FY2024. The list includes United Plantations Bhd (KL:UTDPLT) at RM1.71, Heineken Malaysia Bhd (KL:HEIM) at RM1.55, both Petronas Dagangan Bhd (KL:PETDAG) and Hong Leong Industries Bhd (KL:HLIND) at RM1.07, and Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (KL:CARLSBG) at RM1.

Heineken, Petronas Dagangan, Hong Leong Industries and Carlsberg had all reported higher DPS in FY2024 compared to FY2023. On the other hand, Nestlé and United Plantations’ dividends declared for FY2024 were lower on a per-share basis compared to FY2023.

In another story, we looked at just how much in dividends government-linked investment companies (GLICs) have received from their investments in the local equity market.

The data showed that Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) received the most dividend income among the five GLICs, at an estimated RM6.21 billion in 2024, marking a 7.25% increase from RM5.79 billion in 2023. PNB was followed by the Employees Provident Fund.

Pick up a copy of The Edge to find out more about the highest-dividend-paying companies this week.

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