The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Account is one of the best ways to save for retirement.
By socking your money away in your CPF Ordinary Account (OA), you can slowly build a large enough nest egg that can generate regular income for yourself.
However, the CPF OA pays an interest rate of just 2.5%, which is barely enough to keep pace with long-term inflation, which runs between 3% to 4% annually.
Hence, you should invest your CPF OA money to achieve a better long-term return, and a good place to start is to select solid businesses with long, dividend-paying track records.
To do so, you need to open a CPF Investment Account. Click HERE for more details.
Here are four reliable Singapore stocks that you can sock into your CPF Investment Account.
Venture Corporation (SGX: V03)
Venture Corporation is a blue-chip contract manufacturer and a provider of technology products, services, and solutions.
The group has clients in many technology domains such as life science, genomics, medical devices and equipment, and healthcare.
Venture reported a downbeat set of earnings for 2024 as the group is still affected by the current semiconductor downturn.
Revenue dipped by 9.6% year on year to S$2.7 billion and net profit fell by 9.3% year on year to S$245 million.
Despite the lower profit, Venture generated a positive free cash flow of S$466 million for 2024, comparable to the S$473.9 million churned out in 2023.
In terms of dividends, the group has also been very consistent, paying a total of S$0.75 per year in two tranches (S$0.25 interim and S$0.50 final) since 2020.
At a share price of S$12.63, Venture’s shares provide an attractive historical dividend yield of 5.9%.
Venture has also purchased 1.7 million shares under its share buyback plan, out of a total authorised repurchase amount of 10 million shares.
The board has approved the acceleration of this plan to buy back the remaining 8.3 million shares.
The contract manufacturer is also implementing new business wins in design and manufacturing and targets for growth this year.
Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U)
Frasers Centrepoint Trust, or FCT, is a blue-chip retail REIT with a portfolio of nine suburban malls and an office building.
The REIT has shown resilience in the face of tough times as interest rates surged and inflation hit highs back in 2022 and 2023.
For its fiscal 2024 (FY2024) ending 30 September 2024, FCT reported a 4.9% year-on-year dip in gross revenue to S$351.7 million.
Net property income came in 4.6% lower than the previous year at S$253.3 million.
These declines were attributed to the sale of Changi City Point in October 2023 along with Tampines 1 Mall being impacted by asset enhancement works.
Stripping these out, revenue and net property income would have increased by 3.5% and 3.4%, respectively.
Distribution per unit for FY2024 slipped just 0.9% year on year to S$0.12042, giving the retail REIT’s units a trailing distribution yield of 5.8%.
For the latest quarter, FCT saw committed retail occupancy stay high at 99.5% while shopper traffic and tenant sales also saw year-on-year growth.
These operating metrics attest to the strength of demand for its suburban mall portfolio.
Singapore Technologies Engineering (SGX: S63)
Singapore Technologies Engineering, or STE, is a technology and engineering group that serves customers in the aerospace, smart city, and defence sectors.
The group provided an encouraging market update for the first nine months of 2024 (9M 2024) which saw revenue climb 14% year on year to S$8.3 billion.
All three of its divisions recorded year-on-year revenue growth.
A total of S$8.3 billion of new contracts was secured in 9M 2024, taking the order book to S$26.9 billion.
Meanwhile, another S$4.3 billion of contracts was snagged by STE in 4Q 2024, which was nearly double the S$2.2 billion secured in 3Q 2024.
The engineering giant has been paying quarterly dividends of S$0.04 each, with the annual dividend of S$0.16 being paid out since 2022.
At a share price of S$5.06, STE’s shares offer a trailing dividend yield of 3.2%.
VICOM (SGX: WJP)
VICOM may not be a blue-chip stock, but the test and inspection specialist has a strong competitive edge.
The group has a 72.9% market share of the vehicle inspection market and inspected a total of 525,108 vehicles last year.
VICOM is also one of the authorised partners appointed by the Land Transport Authority to install onboard units in vehicles as part of the ERP 2.0 exercise. Thus far, 77,000 of such units have been installed.
VICOM reported a commendable set of earnings for 2024 with revenue rising 6.8% year on year to S$119.5 million.
Operating profit increased by 4.8% year on year to S$34.6 million while net profit improved by 6.1% year on year to S$29.3 million.
The group also generated a positive free cash flow of S$23 million, 22% higher than a year ago.
A S$0.03 final dividend was declared for 2024, up from S$0.0275 last year.
For 2024, the total dividend stood at S$0.058, giving shares of VICOM a historical dividend yield of 4.4%.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang owns shares of VICOM.
