Shanghai-listed Xining Special Steel is by no means a star performer among the more than 1,230 firms quoted on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.
But it had a brush with fame in the mainland annual reporting season that closed last week as the most generous cash dividend payer among listed firms.
The steel and machinery maker, based in the western province of Qinghai, declared a final cash dividend of 52 fen per share for last year.
That gave it an 8.06 per cent dividend yield based on the closing price of its yuan A shares on April 30, the last trading day before the extended holiday closed mainland markets.
The handsome payout cost it a total of 302.75 million yuan (about HK$283.74 million), more than its combined net profits of 283.83 million yuan in the past three years. It also jars with Chinese companies' internationally notorious corporate meanness.
Extravagant in many other ways, mainland listed firms have not been known for generous dividend payments.
