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ERICA Working Group

The ERICA WG has published a new "ERICA series" document, under the title: "Dividend distribution in European non-financial listed groups". This short note offers an example of the usefulness of consolidated accounts data (under IFRS standards), enabling more accurate results in dividend analysis as consolidated data avoids the double counting of intra-group dividends which occurs with individual data. Using the information reported by the main listed non-financial European groups in their financial statements, it can be highlighted the stability of the dividends policy during the period 2012 - 2014. On average, 70% of European listed groups distributed dividends to shareholders. The percentage increased to 90% for the larger groups and decreased to 50% for the smaller ones. Analyzing the behavior by sector, the energy groups are more inclined to distribution, while construction and services were more careful. The behavior by sector of activity and size were confirmed analyzing all the indicators: payout ratio, return for shareholders, dividend yield and profitability. Probit analysis indicates that lagged dividends distributed to owners and lagged profit to total assets ratio are high predictors of dividend distribution decisions.