Securities registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository, Q2 2013

Dividend payouts in the second quarter of 2012, which is normally when Norwegian registered companies pay out dividends, is NOK 6 billion higher than last year and only NOK 5 billion lower than the record high payouts of 2008.

High dividends in the last three years

The dividends on shares registered in the VPS have in the last three years been between NOK 57 billion and NOK 63 billion. These high payouts followed two years of relatively modest dividend payouts in 2009 and 2010, with payments totalling NOK 36 billion and NOK 42 billion respectively. The low dividend payouts in these two years can be attributed to the setback of the world economy following the financial crisis in 2008.

NOK 60 billion of the total dividends were paid out from listed companies, while unlisted companies paid out NOK 3 billion in the second quarter of 2013.

State-owned enterprises with high dividend payouts

As in previous years, state-owned enterprises were the sector that paid out the highest dividends in the second quarter. About half of the dividends on the shares were paid out by state-owned enterprises. This sector includes the relatively large enterprises Statoil and Telenor, which also happen to be the two enterprises that paid out the most in dividends in the second quarter. Private enterprises were the second highest payers of dividends, with just less than a third of the total dividends. Foreign enterprises, some of which pay out dividends several times a year, paid out NOK 2.7 billion in dividends in the second quarter.

Non-life insurance sector increases dividend payouts

The non-life insurance sector’s dividend payouts totalled NOK 3.5 billion in the second quarter. This is 55 per cent higher than in the same quarter of last year.

Central government largest receiver of dividends

In the second quarter of 2012, the central government was the largest receiver of dividends. This sector received NOK 25.5 billion in dividends. Nearly NOK 23 billion of these were paid out by public incorporated enterprises – of which central government and social security funds are a large owner. Foreign investors received NOK 19 billion in dividends in the second quarter, while households received just over NOK 2 billion.

Listed shares decrease in value

The market value of listed shares fell by NOK 87 billion in the second quarter. The value of the listed shares thereby stood at NOK 1 561 billion at the end of the quarter. Most of the loss in value is due to dividends having been paid out, causing the securities to decrease in value. Some of the loss in value was however caused by falling prices of shares in the financial markets.

Reduced stocks of debt securities

In the second quarter, the stocks of bonds decreased by NOK 12 billion to NOK 1 613 billion. Holdings of short-term bonds also decreased in the second quarter by more than NOK 21 billion to NOK 255 billion. See the statistics Bonds and commercial papers for more information on which sectors issued the bonds.¹

¹ The figures in this paragraph was corrected on 29 August 2013.