Sandvik and Investor are the first large listed companies to present financial statements for 2020 and thus proposals for share dividends.

Sandvik was one of the companies that made large layoffs last year - they affected at most over 6,000 employees.

Sanvik then received state support of 300 million.

But in the spring, the board withdrew the proposed dividend altogether.

Forced to choose

The government changed the regulations last spring, stating that companies that paid dividends would not be able to receive redundancy support, which forced companies to choose.

Sandvik's profit fell by seven percent to just over eleven billion.

The fourth quarter was strong and record margins of over 20 percent are reported.

Staff reductions are being made to save money, and a dividend is proposed that will cost close to SEK 8 billion.

The CEO admits that the dividend is a way to compensate shareholders who did not receive anything last year.

- Yes, we have a philosophy to distribute half of the profit over time, so it will be less one year, it will be more another, says CEO Stefan Widing to SVT.

Contributed to the win

The share dividend means that Sandvik expects not to lay off in 2021. But the profit for 2020 has of course been higher thanks to support from taxpayers.

Did you really need tax money if you could afford a record dividend?

- We sought support for the second and third quarters.

Then we did not know what the whole year would be like.

When things went better in the fourth quarter, we did not seek support, says Stefan Widing.

Investor proposes record dividend.

SEK 14 per share just over SEK 10 billion.

Investor withheld a small part of the dividend last year - then it was only SEK 9 per share.

So they too want to give a generous dividend this time.

Investor value has increased by SEK 40 billion this year - despite the crisis.

And CEO Johan Forssell, says that it is not just because the companies behaved well.

- The companies have behaved excellently and adapted quickly.

But it has also been extremely important that the government stepped in with strong support in this extremely difficult situation