news

interface news reporter | han yuhang

interface news editor | jiang yiman

the first half of 2024 financial reports are concluded, and manyAthe mid-term dividend plans of listed banks and insurance companies were also announced.

according to incomplete statistics from interface news reporters, a total of 12 banks and 4 insurance companies have determined mid-term dividend plans.

since the beginning of this year, due to the risk aversion sentiment in the marketwarming up，investors with increasingly conservative risk appetite preferhigh dividends, low valuations”bank stocksthe performance of the banks did not disappoint. just two months ago, they just sprinkled hundreds of billions of red envelopes.Alisted banks also disclosed their interim dividend plans in their 2024 interim reports.

among them, the six major banks have all confirmed the implementation of mid-term dividends, and the interim dividend amount of the "universe bank" industrial and commercial bank of china has reached 51.1 billion yuan. the dividend amounts of china construction bank, agricultural bank of china, bank of china, and bank of communications are 49.252 billion yuan, 40.738 billion yuan, 35.562 billion yuan, and 13.516 billion yuan respectively. in terms of proportion, the dividend ratios of several state-owned banks are all above 29%.

postal savings bank also determined the proportion of interim dividends in its semi-annual report: the total amount of interim dividends will account for no more than 30% of the net profit attributable to the bank's shareholders under the caliber of the semi-annual consolidated financial statements in 2024. according to the financial report, the net profit attributable to the bank's shareholders in the first half of 2024 was 48.815 billion yuan.

in addition to the six major banks, five joint-stock banks and one city (rural) commercial bank have also determined the dividend amounts. china citic bank, china minsheng bank, ping an bank and hua xia bank distributed dividends of 9.873 billion yuan, 5.692 billion yuan, 4.774 billion yuan and 1.591 billion yuan respectively. in terms of proportion, except for ping an bank and hua xia bank, the dividend ratios of the other banks are less than 20%, while the rest are all above 25%.

after the release of the interim report, nanjing bank separately issued an announcement on the interim profit distribution plan, clarifying the specific plan for the interim dividend, and distributed a cash dividend of rmb 3.587 (including tax) per 10 shares to all common shareholders, with a total cash dividend of rmb 3.7103 billion. the dividend ratio reached 32%.

as the only rural commercial bank that has currently determined the dividend amount, shanghai rural commercial bank’s dividend ratio has reached 33%, and the specific total amount has reached 2.305 billion yuan.

the two banks, whose dividend ratios are above 30%, have achieved positive growth in revenue and net profit in the first half of 2024. among them, nanjing bank achieved operating income of 26.216 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 7.87%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 11.594 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.51%. shanghai rural commercial bank achieved operating income of 13.917 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 0.23%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 6.971 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.62%.

in addition to listed banks, listed insurance companies are also actively distributing mid-term dividends. among the five a-share listed insurance companies, except for china pacific insurance, the other four have confirmed mid-term dividend plans. ping an of china, china life, china insurance group, and new china life insurance distributed dividends of 16.84 billion yuan, 5.653 billion yuan, 2.786 billion yuan, and 1.685 billion yuan, respectively. among them, ping an of china has a higher dividend rate of 22.57%, while the other three are all around 15%.

in general, the five listed insurance companies have achieved positive profit growth. except for china life, the profit growth rate is above 10%. among them, china pacific insurance, which has the highest profit growth, has not yet announced its mid-term dividend plan. in the first half of 2024, china pacific insurance achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of rmb 25.132 billion, a year-on-year increase of 37.1%.

the total amount of interim dividends of listed banks and insurance companies that have disclosed their interim profit distribution plans has reached nearly 260 billion yuan, and many banks such as china merchants bank and jiangsu bank have stated that their interim dividend plans are under discussion. it is foreseeable that more banks will join the "brigade" of distributing red envelopes for interim dividends.

li zhan, chief economist of the research department of china merchants fund, said that the overall improvement in the dividend amount, coverage and stable expectations of mid-term dividends is closely related to the companies' increased awareness of dividends on the one hand, and is also inseparable from the continuous guidance of supervision on the other.

in march 2024, four documents on "two strengths and two stricts" were issued, requiring listed companies to formulate active and stable cash dividend policies. the introduction of the new "national nine articles" in april further clarified the guidance for listed companies' multiple dividend policies in a year. the "new national nine articles" pointed out that for companies that have not paid dividends for many years or have a low dividend ratio, major shareholders will be restricted from reducing their holdings and risk warnings will be implemented. increase incentives for high-quality dividend companies and take multiple measures to promote higher dividend rates. enhance the stability, sustainability and predictability of dividends, and promote multiple dividends a year, pre-dividends, and dividends before the spring festival.

some industry insiders also said that interim dividends of listed companies will not increase the total dividend amount, but will only be paid twice a year. investors should be rational about interim dividends of listed companies. from the company level, interim dividends are more suitable for listed companies with relatively balanced profits every quarter, high dividend payout ratios and sufficient cash flow.