Since the 2008 crises markets have not paid lower dividends

The coronavirus crisis will cause the world's largest companies to cut their dividend payouts by between 17% -23% or even up to $ 400 billion this year, a new report shows, despite sectors like tech battling that trend . According to calculations by fund manager Janus Henderson, global dividend payments plummeted $ 108 billion to $ 382 billion in the second quarter of the year, a 22% year-over-year decline in what will be the worst decline since at least 2009. All regions saw lower payouts with the exception of North America, where Canadian payments proved resilient. Globally, 27% of companies cut their dividends, while Europe was hardest hit, with more than half of companies cutting dividends and two-thirds of them cutting them out altogether. "2020 will be the worst result for global dividends since the global financial crisis," said Janus Henderson in a report published on Monday. "We now expect global headline dividends to fall 17% at best and pay out $ 1.18 trillion ... In our worst-case scenario, payouts could fall 23% to $ 1.10 trillion. " A breakdown of the various sectors also showed some major differences. Banks and other financial firms, ordered by the European Central Bank to stop paying dividends, were responsible for half of the 45% decline in European dividends in the second quarter to $ 77 billion. Miners and oil companies were hit hard by the widespread collapse in commodity prices, and private consumption companies were also hit hard by the government lockdowns, resulting in significantly lower payments. In contrast, dividends from tech, telecommunications and healthcare companies were relatively unaffected, with dividends rising 1.8% and 0.1% on an underlying basis, respectively. This great resilience of technology has also helped <a class="tvreplink" target="_blank" href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=Nasdaq%3AMSFT">Microsoft (O: MSFT) and Apple (O: AAPL) make their way into the top ten global dividend payers for the first time this year. This list is still headed by Nestle (S: NESN). "Dividend trends reflect current trends in society and the equity markets," said Janus Hendersons director of global equity earnings, Ben Lofthouse. "We will likely see increases from parts of the tech sector," he added. "There are a lot of very strong records in this area." Going forward, he said, several key factors will determine how strong the dividend rebound will be. The most obvious is the coronavirus path, but there is also what US firms are doing later this year and whether Europe's banks will get the green light to resume payments early next year. "The big question for the US is what will happen in the fourth quarter. If many companies cut their dividends significantly, payouts will be locked at lower levels through the end of 2021.