Share dividends remain high in 2006

Dutch companies quoted on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX) paid more than 17 billion euro in dividends to shareholders in 2006. This is slightly less than in the record year 2005, when they paid nearly 18 billion euro, but still much more than in the years before 2005 when the amount of dividend paid fluctuated around 14 billion euro.

Total dividend paid by Dutch AEX companies

Share dividend again lower than return on government loans

The total return on shares is determined by changes in share prices and the dividends paid on shares. Dutch share prices rose by an average 13 percent in the Netherlands in 2006.
For 2006 the dividend percentage (3.4 percent) was again lower than the return on government loans. At the end of the nineties, in terms of a percentage of the total stock exchange value, the dividend was around 3.5. After a fall to around 2 percent in 2000 and 2001 it rose to a record high of 4.5 in 2005. The dividend percentage on shares was even higher than the return on government loans in 2005. 
Investment in government bonds is considered to be the safest investment and the return on government loans is often used as a yardstick for returns on other forms of investment.

Dividend percentage on shares and return on government loans

Highest dividends for real estate investors

Investments in real estate have been returning a stable dividend of around 7 percent for years now. There was a peak in 2002 with more than 17 percent. This was pushed up by the super dividends of the various Rodamco real estate investment companies.
The return on companies which do not invest in real estate is considerably lower, at 2 percent.
In 2006, too, real estate investment companies paid high amounts of dividends: 6 percent. Other investment companies lagged far behind with just over 2 percent.

Dividend percentage investment and real estate investment companies

Jos van Heiningen