Payments announced this year--following the spring general meetings of the companies in which the state is a shareholder--should make it possible to make up for some of last year’s shortfall.

According to calculations by Paperjam, which primarily take into account dividends received from large companies, the Luxembourg state should rake in nearly €270m. This would be a record amount, linked to a catch-up effect, particularly in the banking sector.

With the start of the pandemic last year, the European Central Bank had told banking institutions to postpone the payment of dividends to make sure they had enough reserves in case of loan defaults. This recommendation was issued until October 2020 and then extended until 1 January this year.

The Spuerkeess therefore kept €40m intended for its sole shareholder, the state, in its coffers. BGL BNP Paribas held back €50m due to the state’s 34% stake. As for the French parent company, BNP Paribas, of which the state is a 1% shareholder, it decided to slide the sum promised to shareholders into its reserves.

Other dividend cuts came on top of the banking moratorium last year. With a loss of $2.5bn for the 2019 financial year, ArcelorMittal didn’t pay dividends. A year earlier, Luxembourg had received €2.3m. This year, the Luxembourg-based steel giant has resumed paying dividends, with €3.25m expected for the state.

Satellite group SES, too, had reduced its payment by half in 2020 following its results--€13.1m against €26.2m the year before--while energy company Encevo increased its payments to the state to €7m in 2020 against €5.3m a year earlier.

For 2021, SES should pay €26.6m compared to Encevo’s €6.6m. BGL BNP Paribas will pay a total of €110m and the Spuerkeess €80m for 2021 and 2020. BNP Paribas will contribute €14m.

Airfreight company Cargolux, which reported a record profit of €635.7m for the pandemic year 2020, pledged an amount of €7.8m after its last payment of €2.2m in 2019.

Other sources of dividends include the Post, Aperam, Creos, ILR and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, for a combined amount of around €19.4m.

This story was first published in French on Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.