Credit Bureau Asia (SGX: TCU)
...A cash return feels like a win.
If you live off your portfolio, though, the useful question is not how big this year’s cheque is.
It is whether the same cheque turns up next year.
Three SGX-listed companies are handing cash back to shareholders in their latest financial year.
Each is doing it a different way.
One is paying an ordinary dividend and clearing out surplus capital on top.
One is running a multi-year programme of special dividends and buybacks.
One has topped up its ordinary dividend with a one-off special.
Tell those mechanisms apart, and you can see which income you can retire on and which is a one-time bonus.
Free cash flow (FCF) is the lifeblood of dividends.
So the test for each stock is the same.
Does the cash coming in cover what goes out to shareholders?
Here they are, from steadiest to most nuanced.
