Perpetual Securities are a class of financial instrument and has in recent times gained popularity due to a low interest environment. Companies such as Ezion, Hyflux and even Mapletree Logistics Trust have issued such instruments to retail investors. This post seeks to cover the basic of Perpetual Securities and how it affects ordinary shareholders Classifying Perpetual Holders Perpetual Securities are bond like instruments which gives perpetual holders a fixed dividend payout at each time period. In addition, it has no maturity date to redeem and its dividends are either non-cumulative or cumulative (cumulative means the payment of dividends are accumulated and brought to the next payment date). It is classified under "Equity" in the balance sheet. Below is Hyflux's balance sheet which shows that perpetual securities are classified under the "Equity" section.

Hyflux Balance Sheet

So while Perpetuals do have bond-like payments, it is classified as "equity". Perpetual Securities where do they ......