The Netherlands’ top blue-chip firms booked record combined profit of €78bn last year, almost 25% up on 2006, according to research by the Financieele Dagblad.

Twelve of the AEX firms also booked record earnings on an individual level. This is partly due to divestments, but the underlying trend was still upward, the paper said.
Payouts to shareholders almost totaled €46bn, of which €22bn was in the form of dividends and the rest share buy-backs.