A stream of billions of dividends from the Polish economy. Here's where the money goes [MAPA]
Of course, there is also the other side, Polish companies invest abroad and also download dividends from it. Due to the availability of information, however, we focused on where dividends from Poland flow.
We analyzed the data of one hundred largest in terms of capitalization of listed companies and the first hundred of companies, which in 2023 showed the greatest profits before taxation according to the list of the Ministry of Finance for 2024. Maybe it will not give us a complete picture, but since we have the data of the largest companies that had the greatest profits, the remaining group of this picture would not change. We did not subtract taxes paid in Poland from dividends from the amounts given.
“Dividend hubs”, or the Netherlands and Luxembourg
The largest dividend amount flowed from Poland to the Netherlands. As much as PLN 12.8 billion It was paid to entities registered in this country. The Netherlands, however, is not a target country, but a tax -friendly type of “dividend hub”, where companies from around the world register to save on the tax office.
Of these PLN 12.8 billion in the Netherlands, only PLN 3.5 billion remained in the Netherlandsmainly from the dividend of ING Bank Śląski (PLN 3.3 billion), the rest went to other countries where there are target shareholders. It goes through the Netherlands, for example PLN 4.1 billion of dividend paid to the Dutch shareholder by Jeronimo Martins Polskai.e. the owner of the Biedronka and Hebe networks, but this money is further directed to Portugal. A similar rule applies to the company Rossmann drugstore supermarkets, which he paid to the Dutch owner last year. PLN 1.6 billionbut the parent company is the German entity and the money is finally there. The same is the case with: OLX groups (PLN 632 million dividends through the Netherlands they go further to South Africa), IKEA Retail (PLN 403 million through the Netherlands then goes to Sweden), Coca-Cola (PLN 211 million He goes to the USA through the Netherlands). What's more, there are cases such as Polpharmawhere after passing through the Netherlands Dividend PLN 784 million He finally goes to the Polish owner Jerzy Starak.
Luxembourg is the second big “dividend hub”. Here, from the group of companies we analyzed, PLN 1.4 billion went to. But PLN 639 million of this amount is the dividend of Volkswagen Poznańwhich ultimately goes to Germany, a PLN 200 million is Qmetica withdrawal (formerly Ciech), which ultimately turns back from Luxembourg to Poland to Sebastian Kulczyk. In Luxembourg, only the money was paid by Integer.pl (Grupa Inpost, PLN 344 million) and Dom Development (PLN 177 million). In the case of InPost, part of this amount went to Rafał Brzoska, which has 12.5 percent. Luxembourg InPost shares.
The map below shows where the money goes to ultimately, i.e. without taking into account intermediary hubs. The data includes those companies that paid dividends. Some large foreign companies have retained all profits for investments or suffered losses such as Hindu Arcelor Mittal Poland, German Kaufland Polish Markets or South Korean LG Energy Solutions Wrocław.
Dividends flowing abroad from the largest companies in Poland in 2024. Dividends flowing abroad from the largest companies in Poland
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Jacek Frączyk / Business Insider
Germany receives the most
As you can see Germany is a key foreign recipient of dividends developed in the Polish economywhere the companies we examined was ultimately PLN 5.9 billion. He poured the largest payments through the Netherlands Rossmann drugstore supermarkets (PLN 1.6 billion), directly to Germany was paid by Lidl (PLN 835 million) and indirectly through Luxembourg – Volkswagen Poznań (PLN 639 million). Insurers directly paying to Germany are: Warta (PLN 360 million) and Ergo Hestia (PLN 332 million) and Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Poland (PLN 331 million).
Portugal is in second place with PLN 4.1 billion, and this mainly thanks to the owner of Biedronka, who received PLN 4 billion in the Netherlands through the company in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands itself is third from PLN 3.5 billion (ING BSK PLN 3.3 billion, Grupa Żywiec PLN 122 million), fourth Spain with PLN 3.3 billion (Santander Bank Polska PLN 2.9 billion, Budimex PLN 457 million) and the fifth France with PLN 3 billion (Play telephony operator P4 P4 PLN 1.4 billion, BNP Paribas Bank Polska PLN 410 million).
Author: Jacek Frączyk, Business Insider Polska editor
