Oslo Børs: Highest Ever Dividends

Never before have companies listed on Oslo Børs returned so much money to shareholders in the form of dividends as in 2019.

So far this year companies listed on Oslo Børs have distributed NOK 108.1 billion in dividends to their shareholders. This is NOK 2 billion more than the record ‘oil year’ of 2014, and about NOK 4 billion more than last year – see the graphic below.

The record high level of dividends reflects the strong performance and high profitability of the companies concerned.

Dividends represent a large proportion of the return from investing in shares. Basedon the current combined market value of the companies listed on Oslo Børs, the dividends paid this year represent a direct return of 3.9%. (As is well known, the total return delivered by equity markets is made up of share price rises plus dividend payments.)

Nearly one third of total dividend payments is paid directly to the Norwegian state. NOK 33 billionof the dividends distributed in 2019 were paid to the Norwegian state as a result of its ownership interests in Equinor, Telenor, DNB, Yara International, Norsk Hydro, Kongsberg Gruppen and Entra. The state received a dividend of NOK 20 billion in 2019 just as a result of its ownership interest in Equinor, while this autumn it received a total of NOK 11 billion in dividends from Telenor and DNB.

Equinor, DNB, Telenor, Aker BP and Mowi distributed the largest dividends this year – see the table below.