The big celebration recorded in 2021 on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was reflected not only in a sharp rise in the stock indices and in the inflation of the companies traded on it to NIS 1 trillion, but also in distributions. Dividends Exceptional scales. After the sharp decline in dividend distributions, which was recorded in 2020, public companies in 2021 distributed dividends totaling NIS 21.2 billion. The stock market data include dividends in cash only and does not include in-kind dividends distributed by the companies.
According to the TASE research unit, the total dividends distributed in 2021 are almost twice the total dividends distributed in 2020. Data published by Yuval Tzuk from the research unit show that the number of department companies in 2021 was 211 – a record since 2011.
This is after the negative impact of the Corona virus outbreak on economic activity in some sectors of the economy in 2020, and as a result also on the distribution of dividends of the companies whose shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. .
As a result, many companies have preferred to keep cash reserves in their coffers, at the expense of distributing the funds to their shareholders. This situation led in 2020 to a sharp decline in the number of departments and in the amounts of dividends, with 156 companies paying their shareholders about NIS 10.9 billion.
In 2021, the picture changed, against the background of the largest vaccination campaign in Israel and in the world, and even though the corona crisis has not yet ended. It should be noted that the dividend data for 2021 are also higher than those for 2018 and 2019 (the years before the outbreak of the corona virus), in which NIS 18.5 billion and NIS 19.4 billion were distributed, respectively.
About 58% of the dividends (about NIS 12.8 billion) were paid to shareholders from the public, and the rest was paid to the shareholders in the companies. The average dividend yield of listed companies in 2021 amounted to about 2.2%, compared to about 1.3% in 2020.
Although the total dividend distributed is higher than that distributed in 2018 and 2019, the average dividend yield is lower than that recorded in those years (about 2.6% in each of the years), due to a sharp increase in the companies’ market value. The TASE data also shows that 106 companies out of the 387 companies whose shares have been traded on the TASE continuously over the past five years, distributed a dividend each year in each of the years (2017-2021).
Banks are responsible for more than a quarter of the dividend distribution
In 2021, the share of the banks, which recorded record profits, stood out in the distribution of dividends. These were responsible for more than a quarter of the total distribution, with dividends totaling NIS 5.7 billion, mostly by Leumi, Poalim and Mizrahi Tefahot. These huge divisions were made possible following the removal of the restrictions imposed on the banks at the beginning of the Corona crisis.
In March 2020, the Supervisor of Banks issued a temporary order, which led to a halt in the distribution of dividends by the banks. In July 2021, the Supervisor of Banks allowed a distribution of up to 30% of the net profit as a dividend, while in December 2021, the Supervisor of Banks announced the cancellation of the restrictions in full.
These facilities have been put to good use by the banks, which have been distributing a bank since last summer national An amount of about NIS 2 billion to its shareholders for the profits of 2020 and 2021, and recorded a dividend yield of about 4.6%. Bank eWorking Since last July, it has distributed dividends totaling NIS 1.5 billion, which yielded a dividend yield of 3.8%, while Mizrahi Bank During that period, he distributed dividends in the amount of NIS 1.2 billion.
They were also joined by Bank E.international , Which distributed dividends in the amount of NIS 545 million last year, and completed an industry dividend yield of 4.4% – the highest among the stock exchange industries.
The Phoenix is a leader in insurance – with NIS 580 million
The second highest dividend yield in 2021 was 3.7%, and it belongs to the insurance industry. The highest dividends in the insurance industry – in the amount of NIS 580 million – were distributed in 2021 by the insurance company The Phoenix , Which is controlled by the foreign investment funds Centerbridge and Geltin Point, which has become the industry leader in performance and value. The distributions made by the Phoenix reflected a high dividend yield of 7.1%.
The second on the list of departments in insurance is Harel Investments Controlled by the Hamburger family, which distributed a total of NIS 257 million in 2021 (dividend yield of 3.7%), while the third is IDI Insurance Of the Schneidman family, which distributed NIS 160 million to its shareholders (dividend yield of 10.1%). the insurance company Menorah Insurers This year, it distributed NIS 100 million in cash dividends.
It should be noted that the corona crisis in 2020 led the insurance companies to an almost complete cessation of dividend distribution, and the industry dividend yield then amounted to only 0.2%. The TASE data also shows that the financial services industry recorded an average dividend yield of 3.6%, after 18 of the 30 companies in the industry paid their shareholders a total of NIS 800 million.
With the list of large departments (according to the distribution amounts) is also a company ICL (Formerly Israel Chemicals) from the Israel Ofer Group of the Idan Ofer Group, which enjoyed a sharp rise in fertilizer prices in 2021, and distributed quarterly dividends to its shareholders in the cumulative amount of NIS 900 million. For comparison, in 2020 the company was satisfied with a distribution of only NIS 400 million.
Car fuel , The importer of cars controlled by Gil Agmon, distributed dividends of NIS 713 million in 2021, thanks to an improvement in vehicle sales and success in the sale offer of the issuance of the subsidiary Veridis, which operates in the fields of infrastructure and the environment. partnership Drilling fuel , Which is controlled by the Yitzhak Tshuva Delek Group, distributed NIS 634 million of its profits in 2021, thanks to an increase in demand for natural gas from the Levitan reservoir and the sale of the holding in the Tamar reservoir.
The TA-35 index is responsible for more than half of the dividends
Data from the research department also show that 51% of the total dividends distributed by listed companies in 2021 came from companies included in the Tel Aviv-35 index. 23 of the companies included in the index distributed dividends of NIS 10.8 billion, reflecting a dividend yield of 2%.
For comparison, in 2020, 21 of the index companies distributed a total of about NIS 3.6 billion, which reflected a dividend yield of only 0.8%. The most prominent dividend yields in 2021 among the index companies belong to Phoenix (7%), a group Ashtrom andI will die (About 4.75%) and the banks Leumi (4.6%), International (4.4%) and Mizrahi Tefahot (4.2%).
58 of the companies whose shares were included in the Tel Aviv-90 index at the end of 2021 distributed dividends in the amount of NIS 6.6 billion (approximately 31% of the total dividends), compared with 54 index companies that distributed NIS 4.2 billion in 2020. The amount distributed by index companies Tel Aviv-90 in 2021 is also similar to the one paid by the index companies in 2019.
The dividend yield of the Tel Aviv-90 Index amounted to 2.4%, higher than in 2020 (1.9%) but lower than in 2019 (3.8%). The highest dividend yields among the index companies in 2021 belong to the oil and gas partnerships Isramco Of Kobi Maimon and Haim Tzof (19.8%) and Delek Drilling (11.3%), and car importers Delek Car (18.9%) andCrash Motors (10.7%).