Red Bull billionaire grabs US$765m dividend in year of pandemic

[VIENNA] Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz is getting a bumper payout of US$765 million after his Red Bull energy drink empire grew unabated despite the pandemic gripping the world economy.

Red Bull, the holding company overseeing sales of the canned caffeine-spiked drink, booked net revenue of 6.3 billion euro (S$9.65 billion) in 2020, 4 per cent more than a year earlier, according to the group's annual report posted to the Austrian company register. That produced net income of 1.18 billion euros, a 29 per cent increase from 2019.

Red Bull is paying out half of the year's distributable profit plus half a billion euros of retained earnings to Mateschitz and his co-shareholders, Thailand's Yoovidhya family, which controls 51 per cent of the company, according to a resolution of the shareholders attached to the annual report.

Red Bull's total dividend is more than double the amount paid to shareholders last year.

Mateschitz gets an additional 165 million euros extra dividend on top of his pro rata amount, according to the resolution, which gives no reason for the different treatment. Chalerm Yoovidhya also gets an extra 3.2 million euros.

BLOOMBERG