The 3 local banks, UOB, DBS and OCBC have announced their impressive Q4 and FY2019 financial results this week. All 3 banks registered not just increased revenue income and earnings, but RECORD HIGH annual earnings. What is worth highlighting to income investors is that they all dished out dividends of around 5%! which is higher than some of the branded Reits.
OCBC in particular has achieved a significant 34% increase in Q4 2019 earnings and increased their FY19 dividends by a whopping 23%. Dividends from OCBC used to lag UOB and DBS in terms of payout ratio due to their conservative management style. So they could have finally woke up.
The outlook for 2020 will be very challenging with the Covid-19 virus affecting China and the world greatly. The gloomy economy prospect and highly possible recession in Singapore and APAC region could result in massive retrenchments, unemployment, poor businesses and result in...