European Dividend Aristocrats: The Top Growers

If you are an income investor, you want to buy companies that are increasing their dividends. Given the slowdown in the US economy and the trend toward globalization, you may want to diversify your portfolio with some European dividend payers. You might be interested to know that S&P publishes a list of Dividend Aristocrats for Europe. The list consists of "large cap, blue chips" that have increased their dividends every year for the last 10 years. There are presently 31 companies on this list; however, some have grown their dividends at a much faster rate than others.

Here are the top European dividend growers using S&P's European Aristocrats as a starting point:

Ticker	Company	Country	Dividend Growth ’97-‘08	Current Yield
CTAGF.PK	Capita Group, Plc	UK	1,190%	1.7%
NVO	Novo Nordisk	Denmark	801%	1.3%
ATLKY.PK	Atlas Copco	Sweden	599%	2.7%
AAAGY.PK	Altana AG	Germany	584%	3.8%
ORKLY.PK	Orkla AS	Norway	522%	2.8%
N/A	Handelsbanken	Sweden	291%	4.1%
CBHMF.PK	Cobham, Plc	UK	278%	2.1%
MUSJF.PK	Misys, PLC	UK	243%	5.3%

Most of the above stocks are OTC. Several of these companies, however, are worth consideration; in my opinion, Novo Nordisk (NVO), Atlas Copco (ATKLY.PK) and Orkla ASA (ORKLY.PK) are particularly interesting. All three have global operations.

Listed below are five more of Europe's top dividend growers that did not qualify as S&P European Dividend Aristocrats, either because they have been paying dividends for less than 10 years or because they did not increase their dividend every year:

Ticker	Company	Country	Dividend Growth (Period)	Current Yield
NOK	Nokia CP	Finland	1,300% (’97-’08)	2.3%
MTA	Magyar Telekom, Plc.	Hungary	1,069% (’98-’08)	14.6%
BASFY.PK	BASF SE	Germany	528% (’01-’08)	2.9%
TOT	Total, SA	France	522% (’97-’08)	4.1%
VOD	Vodafone Group, Plc.	UK	479% (’97-’08)	3.2%

One factor you may want to be aware of when buying a foreign dividend stock is that most (but not all) pay their dividends once a year or semi-annually. And in some cases, tax may be withheld at the source on the dividends paid.

Disclosure: The author is long BASFY.PK.

Comments

[THofler]

I own a little Total & almost bought BASF, but I also think Eni and Philips Elec. are good additions to this list.