Why dividends in this part of the world have trebled

Shareholder payouts have historically been low on the list of priorities in this region. Not any more.

Asia-Pacific has not historically been a favourite place for income seekers to visit.

The reason why is because companies in the region are often in their growth phase, meaning reinvesting profits is often prioritised over paying dividends. However, even for mature companies, shareholder remuneration was often low on the list of company priorities.

That seems to be changing, with new research from Henderson Far East Income (LSE:HFEL) showing that the past decade has seen the region more than triple its dividend payouts.

Dated to the end of April 2019, dividends for the Asia-Pacific (excl. Japan) region grew by 220.8% since 2009. Growth over that period was almost twice as fast as the rest of the world's combined 119.8%. US dividend growth, in contrast, was 181% over the decade.

In total, companies in Asia-Pacific paid their shareholders £1.5 trillion over the past decade. Ten years ago, dividends from the region were just £57.6 billion, only slightly larger than the UK's £50.1 billion.

The region's strong dividend performance continued in 2019, with first quarter growth from the region coming in at 8.3% in headline terms. The headline rate was slightly below that of the rest of the world, which came in at 9.6%.

However, that was the result of one-off special dividends being lower year-on-year, particularly in China and Hong Kong, and some exchange-rate effects. Once that was stripped out, underlying dividend growth for the region continued its trend of being above average at 11.3%, three percentage points higher than the rest of the world.

Over the past year, the biggest contributors to dividend growth in the region have been South Korea, China and Singapore.

The worst performers in the region were New Zealand and Malaysia. Both countries saw lower dividend payouts compared to the year before.

Commenting on the growth of Asia-Pacific dividend payouts, Mike Kerley, portfolio manager of Henderson Far East Income noted: "Rapid dividend growth comes on top as companies across Asia-Pacific are increasingly adopting a culture of dividend paying.

"This is partly because many companies are becoming very large and ever more mature, both features which tend to lead to higher dividend payments anyway as operations become strongly cash generative. And it partly reflects a changing corporate attitude that increasingly recognises the importance of returning capital to shareholders."

Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.