dividend

noun · Dividende

Dividende for the corporate distribution of profit, § 58 AktG, but the dividend a creditor receives in an insolvency is die Insolvenzquote, § 196 InsO, not a Dividende at all. And a dividend is not automatic, it needs the Gewinnverwendungsbeschluss, § 174 AktG, so the German word turns on whether profit is shared or an estate is distributed.

Which translation, when

Dividendethe shareholder’s distribution of profit, resolved by the meeting, § 58 Abs. 4 AktG, paid on the Gewinnverwendungsbeschluss, § 174 AktG, die Ausschüttung the broader word.

Insolvenzquotethe dividend a creditor receives from an insolvent estate, § 196 InsO, a pro-rata share of the realised assets, never a Dividende.

Why

Dividend splits by whether profit is shared or an estate is carved up. The corporate dividend is die Dividende, the shareholders’ share of distributable profit, resolved at the Hauptversammlung on the management’s proposal, § 58 Abs. 4 AktG, and paid out under the Gewinnverwendungsbeschluss, § 174 AktG, with die Ausschüttung the wider word for any distribution. The insolvency dividend is a different animal in the same English coat, the creditor’s pro-rata recovery from the realised estate is die Insolvenzquote, § 196 InsO, and calling it a Dividende imports a profit-sharing idea into a loss-sharing distribution. The vocabulary around the corporate sense is precise, the interim dividend is die Abschlagsdividende, § 59 AktG, and a distribution in kind a Sachdividende, § 58 Abs. 5 AktG. So dividend is Dividende only when profit is shared, and the creditor reading you will receive a dividend of ten per cent in an insolvency is being told a Quote, not promised a return on shares, which is why the same English word must split in two on the way into German.

Typical mistakes

The insolvency dividend is die Insolvenzquote, § 196 InsO, a share of the estate, not a Dividende, so translating a creditor’s recovery as a Dividende imports profit-sharing into a loss.
A dividend is not automatic, it needs the Gewinnverwendungsbeschluss, § 174 AktG, on distributable profit, § 58 AktG, so the shareholders are entitled to a dividend overstates a claim that depends on the resolution.
Ausschüttung is the broader word and Dividende the shareholder’s share, so a general distribution and a resolved dividend should not be flattened into one term.

What matters

Insolvency circulars and dividend notices pull the word apart: a shareholder’s dividend is die Dividende on the Gewinnverwendungsbeschluss, § 174 AktG, while a creditor’s ten-per-cent dividend in an insolvency is die Insolvenzquote, § 196 InsO, a fraction of the estate. The circular promising creditors a Dividende has offered them a share of profits that do not exist.

Authority

§ 58 AktG
§ 174 AktG
§ 59 AktG
§ 196 InsO

What the machine misses

Dividend stays Dividende in machine output whether a company shares profit or an estate pays creditors, and German uses two different words, die Dividende for the shareholder’s profit share, die Insolvenzquote for the creditor’s fraction of a realised estate. The confusion runs one way and bites hard, an insolvency dividend rendered as a Dividende tells a creditor they are receiving a return on capital when they are receiving a slice of a loss, and the English coat fits both animals badly.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

to declare a dividend	eine Dividende beschließen
interim dividend	die Abschlagsdividende
dividend in the insolvency	die Insolvenzquote
dividend yield	die Dividendenrendite