Foreign investors rake in record-high dividends

Dusseldorf With almost 52 billion euros, the Dax companies paid out more money to their shareholders this year than ever before. And never before has so much of it flowed abroad – it was 26.3 billion euros. This is shown by calculations by the management consultancy EY, which were available to the Handelsblatt in advance. Only 19.7 billion euros ended up in the custody accounts of investors from Germany.

The reason for this is that 52.1 percent of the shares in Germany’s 40 largest listed companies are held by foreign investors. According to EY, investors from Germany only own a little less than a third. The remaining shares cannot be assigned.

The majority of the shares are held by institutional investors such as pension and investment funds, insurance companies or banks. Private investors, on the other hand, are only of minor importance. They hold around ten percent of the shares.