The world’s largest energy-drink maker has paid a juicy bonus to its 12 billionaire shareholders.
Red Bull GmbH distributed a 500 million euro ($617.3 million) special dividend in 2017, according to an undated resolution published on the Austrian company register. The payout came on top of 263.4 million euros in regular dividends for 2016, equal to half the firm’s profit that year.
The payment is a 374 million euro windfall for closely held Red Bull’s co-founder and biggest shareholder, Dietrich Mateschitz. The Austrian billionaire owns a 49 percent stake in the company and has a fortune valued at $15.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The rest of Red Bull is shared among 11 members of the Yoovidhya family of Thailand.
Red Bull sold more than 6 billion cans of its signature caffeinated beverage last year and had 6.3 billion euros in revenue.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.