Paris (AFP)

The amount of dividends paid by companies worldwide reached a new record in the second quarter but the slowdown in the global economy has slowed their growth, according to a study released Monday.

Dividends paid to shareholders around the world rose 1.1% in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, to $ 513.8 billion, according to the benchmark study of fund management company Janus Henderson Investors.

"But the growth rate has been the weakest in more than two years", the deceleration of the global economy having "begun to be felt on the dividends," tempers the management company, which is one of the main in the world with 316 billion euros of assets under management.

By way of comparison, the amount of dividends rose by 14.3% in the second quarter of last year.

The management company also talks about the strength of the dollar, which has slowed global dividend growth.

Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) "is particularly affected," says the document.

Dividends fell by 5.3% to $ 169.5 billion, mainly because of the weakness of the euro. "The global economic slowdown is particularly noticeable in Europe, which affects earnings and therefore limits the ability of European companies to increase their dividends," says Janus Henderson.

Several German automakers, BMW and Daimler, whose profits are affected by the gloom of the sector, have for example reduced their distribution of dividends.

On the other hand, French shareholders are doing well, as the French companies have once again been very generous with them. France is "by far the largest payer of dividends in Europe" (+ 3.1% to 51 billion dollars).

Like the Old Continent, the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan did less well than last year (-2.9% to 43.2 billion dollars). "A quarter of Hong Kong companies in our index have reduced their dividends, including China Mobile, which is a much larger percentage than in the other major markets, reflecting the slowdown in the Chinese economy," he said. Janus Henderson.

Japan, where "dividend growth has outperformed the rest of the world in the last four years," but also Canada, France, and Indonesia are the only countries to break records in the second quarter, according to the study.

In the United States, the amount of dividends is up 4.4% to 132.9 billion dollars, corresponding, however, to the "slowest pace of progression in two years."

Automotive manufacturers have kept their dividends at the same level, reflecting the growing structural challenges facing the sector internationally, "the report said.

Since 2015, global dividends for the second quarter have continued to grow.

"Global dividends have grown extremely fast in the last two years and the slowdown we are seeing is not a cause for concern," said Ben Lofthouse, Janus Henderson's director of high-yield international equity. , quoted in the text.

It should be noted that currency effects resulted in a 2.9 percentage point decrease in total dividends from April to June.

For the year 2019, Janus Henderson keeps his forecasts unchanged, counting on a record amount of $ 1.430 billion in dividends, an increase of 4.2%.

His study is based on an analysis of dividends paid by the 1,200 largest companies in terms of market capitalization.

© 2019 AFP