Korean bank holding firms’ dividend payments to foreign shareholders surpassed 1.4 trillion won ($1.25 billion) in 2011 due largely to their strong performances, data showed Monday.

Four bank holding companies and two banks listed on the main bourse paid out a combined 1.44 trillion won in dividends to foreigners last year, up 7.6 percent from a year ago, according to the data by Chaebol.com, a local tracker of large conglomerates known as chaebol here.

Local lenders’ record earnings last year largely contributed to more payouts for foreign shareholders, the data showed. The tallied banks and financial firms saw their operating profit surge 60 percent on-year in 2011.

After reaching 211.2 billion won in 2008, local banks’ dividend payouts surged to 609.6 billion won a year later and 1.03 trillion won last year.

No. 5 lender Korea Exchange Bank paid out the biggest amount at 700.3 billion won to foreigners at the end of June in 2011, which accounted for more than 70 percent of its total dividend payment.

KEB paid out the dividends before its largest shareholder Lone Star Funds finalized a deal to sell its controlling stake in the lender to Hana Financial Group Inc., the fourth-largest financial group in South Korea.

Shinhan Financial Group Co. will likely pay the second-highest dividends at 384.2 billion won to foreign investors, followed by KB Financial Group Inc. with 174 billion won and Hana Financial Group with 93.1 billion won.

State-run Industrial Bank of Korea is likely to dole out 51.5 billion won to foreign shareholders, with Woori Financial Holdings Co., the country’s top banking group by assets, paying out 42.3 billion won to foreigners, according to the data. 

(Yonhap News)