When SPH announces its FY13 results on Friday after market close, investors would be most pleased to hear that they will pay a final and special dividend of 15 cents/share, which is down 2 cents from the previous year of 17 cents/share. Combined with the 18 cents special dividends given earlier, it brings the total dividends to 40 cents/share, which is a record high for SPH. So should investors hold on to this stock or should they let go and move on to other stocks with clearer earnings direction?

Investors need to take note that the lower YoY% drop in profits for FY13 were mitigated by the special provision of their variable bonus, which otherwise will look much worse than what is in their books. There were also a couple of impairment losses recorded on their books under the operating expenses which has increased quite a bit this ...