Foreign firms pay out 80% of profits back home as dividends in Korea

Foreign companies operating in South Korea have paid out more than 80 percent of their profits as dividends to shareholders since 2011, data showed Wednesday, amid concerns that their spending in Asia's fourth-largest economy is on the wane.
A total of 10.1 trillion won (US$9.9 billion) was paid out as dividends to shareholders by 28 foreign firms here with annual sales of more than 1 trillion won, according to the data compiled by CEO Score, which tracks the nation's big business groups. The figure is 80.3 percent of the combined net profit earned by them for the three years since 2011.