Although Mercedes-Benz Korea has been growing for three consecutive years with sales at 4.43 billion dollars and an operating profit standing at 139 million dollars, some point out that their donations have been stingy as it amounted to only 1.87 million dollars. Dividends have been raised to 42.9 million dollars, 200 thousand dollars higher than last year (42.7 million dollars), and dividend propensity have been raised to 63.16 percent, up 11 percent from last year (52 percent). The company has been heavily criticised for not providing domestic social returns, and no improvements are foreseeable.
According to ‘Sisafocus’ and the Financial Supervisory Service, the dominant company in Mercedes-Benz Korea is Daimler AG, which has a 51 percent stake.
Daimler AG received a dividend of 21.9 million dollars last year alone. More than half of the dividends went to German corporations. On the other hand, donations still remain at 1.87 million dollars. Although donations have been increasing annually from 1.87 million dollars in 2015 to 2.06 million dollars in 2016 and 2.34 million dollars last year, they are still insufficient compared to the number of dividends.