South Korean listed companies paid out record cash dividends last year, but half of the money ended up in the pockets of foreign nationals, according to data released on Wednesday.

The country’s top 30 listed firms in terms of market cap paid 17.39 trillion won ($16.1 billion) in cash dividends in 2017, up 160.8 percent from five years ago. Of which 8.5 trillion won, or 49 percent, went to foreign shareholders, up 178.8 percent from five years ago, according to the data released by the Financial Supervisory Service.

Preferred stocks and companies who did not have comparative figures from five years ago - Samsung BioLogics, Netmarble, Celltrion Healthcare and Samsung SDS - were excluded from calculation.

Samsung Electronics paid out 5.82 trillion won, of which 3.07 trillion won went to foreign nationals as they own combined 52.74 percent stake. Five year ago, foreign share in the company’s cash payout totaled 608 billion won.

Of 706 billion won payout by SK Hynix, 335.6 billion would have gone to foreigners as they hold 47.53 percent in the chipmaker.

Hyundai Motor under pressure by Elliott Management to make bigger shareholders’ returns would have paid 487.6 billion won to foreign shareholders for their stake of 45.17 percent in the automaker. Cash dividends paid to foreign shareholders by Hyundai Mobis and Kia Motors totaled 158.9 billion won and 120.2 billion won, respectively.

By Shin Heon-chul and Minu Kim

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