Shell is top as global dividends breach $1 trillion

Energy major Royal Dutch Shell paid the highest returns to shareholders in 2013, in a year when global dividends broke through the $1trn barrier for the first time. The top ten dividend payers, dominated by oil companies, banks and telecoms companies, accounted for $97.1bn of payouts to shareholders in 2013, equivalent to $1 in every $10 of the global total. British oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was No 1, HSBC No 5 and Vodafone No.7. The others were Exxon Mobil, Apple, China Construction Bank, China Mobile, AT&T, Banco Santander and General Electric.