European dividend payouts staged a strong performance in the second quarter of 2025, with companies across the continent delivering a 10% year-on-year increase to reach $261bn, according to asset manager giant Vanguard.
This “exceptional” growth is comparable to the combined increases seen in North America, China and Japan.
Viktor Nossek, head of investment and product analytics at Vanguard in Europe, said: “After a notable decline in the first quarter of the year, this growth contributed to a slower rate of deceleration on a seasonally adjusted basis. Trade policy developments and uncertainties around supply chains have not had a significant impact thus far.”
Unlike the rest of Europe, Computershare’s latest Dividend Monitor highlighted that total dividends paid by UK companies between April and June fell by 1.4% year-on-year, although underlying growth remained strong.
Vanguard said the primary contributors for Europe’s second quarter dividend growth were the financial sector, industrials and healthcare, which were up $29bn, $13bn and $7bn respectively. They therefore accounted for almost half of the $49bn in global dividend growth.
In contrast, emerging markets excluding China lost out, with the decrease in dividend payouts by the energy sector (down $17bn) and basic materials (down $3.5bn) mostly felt across these regions between April and June.
Looking ahead, Vanguard noted that Chinese banks moving from annual to semi-annual dividend distributions last year is expected to offset the previous base-effect-driven surge in first quarter payouts. The asset manager expected third quarter payouts to represent around half of 2024’s annual total, which may impact China’s overall dividend figures.