Is Asia's dividend story under threat?

A torrid start to the year for global stockmarkets has heightened concerns about the contagion effect of China's problems on the wider Asia Pacific region, and in particular its "maturing" dividend culture.

Asia has become one of the biggest contributors of global dividends, with a record $136.5bn paid out in 2014, up from $107.6bn in 2013. But renewed volatility in China's equity markets has cast a shadow over the area again in recent weeks, after last year's Black Monday crisis. China's stockmarket opened 2016 with a 7% decline in its first week of trading. The fall triggered its new circuit breaker twice (which was subsequently ditched), and prompted declines in equity markets across Asia and the world, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 8.4% to 7 January, while Australia's S&P ASX 200 l...