Dividends distributed by 68 UAE firms rises 14% in 2017
Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: Several listed companies in the UAE were able to distribute dividends in 2017, which registered a 14.4% increase year-on-year to a combined AED 37.2 billion ($10.13 billion).
The average of annual return on investment for UAE companies that announced cash distributions reached 5.42%, according to data released by Emirates News Agency (WAM).
The data is for companies listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).
Banks top dividend values
The banks sector ranked first in the value of distributed cash dividends with AED 18 billion for 2017, registering a 5.9% growth, compared to the prior year. Its distributions made up 48.4% of total distributions across the two bourses.
Coming in second was the telecommunications sector with AED 8.543 billion in cash dividends, registering a 23% year-on-year increase in 2017, and representing 8.15% of total distributions last year, according to WAM.
