Blue-chip stocks are well-known for their resilience as they boast a long track record of weathering different types of economic conditions.
Their size and scale also enable them to recover quickly from downturns and allows them to hold steady during tough times.
In addition, all blue-chip stocks also pay a dividend, providing you with a steady source of passive income to supplement your earned income.
If you have some spare cash, you can consider parking some in these three dependable Singapore blue-chip stocks for the long term.
OCBC Ltd (SGX: O39)
OCBC is Singapore’s second-largest bank by market capitalisation.
The lender is a pillar of Singapore’s economy and has been delivering steady profits and dividends all these years.
For 2024, total income rose 7% year on year to S$14.5 billion on the back of a 1% year-on-year increase in net interest income to S$9.8 billion.
OCBC’s non-interest income shot up 22% year on year to S$4.7 billion, led by higher trading income, fees, and commissions.
The group’s net profit climbed 8% year on year to S$7.6 billion, a record high.
A final dividend of S$0.41 and a special dividend of S$0.16 were declared, taking the total dividend for 2024 to S$1.01, up from S$0.82 in the previous year.
In addition, OCBC announced a comprehensive plan to return S$2.5 billion to shareholders over two years via special dividends and share buybacks, taking its dividend payout ratio to 60%.
The lender expects the net interest margin to be in the region of 2% and projects mid-single-digit loan growth.
OCBC plans to double down on Greater China and plans to invest HK$1.5 billion into technology and facilities in the region over the next three years.
The bank will also hire 300 new talents to expand its regional engineering hub.
More recently, OCBC announced its intention to deploy £10 billion in financing over the next six years to support foreign direct investment into the UK.
These funds will be channelled into energy, transportation, infrastructure, data centres, and real estate by 2030.
Singapore Technologies Engineering (SGX: S63)
Singapore Technologies Engineering, or STE, is an engineering and technology group serving businesses in the aerospace, smart city, defence, and public security sectors.
The group has operations in more than 100 countries.
STE delivered a strong performance for 2024 with revenue rising 11.6% year on year to S$11.3 billion.
Operating profit climbed 17.7% year on year to S$1.1 billion while net profit jumped nearly 20% year on year to S$702.3 million.
In tandem with the strong results, the engineering firm upped its final dividend from S$0.04 to S$0.05, taking 2024’s total dividend to S$0.17.
STE also secured S$4.3 billion of contracts for the fourth quarter of 2024 (4Q 2024), bringing the total new contracts snagged for 2024 to S$12.6 billion.
The group’s order book stood at S$28.5 billion as of 31 December 2024, of which S$8.8 billion will be delivered this year.
There could be more to come from STE as management unveiled five-year targets during its recent Investor Day.
2025 should see the total dividend increase further to S$0.18 and from 2026 onwards, STE will pay out an incremental dividend based on one-third of the year-on-year increase in net profit.
STE has kept up the momentum for 1Q 2025, securing orders of S$4.4 billion for the quarter, of which the bulk (S$2.7 billion) was for its Defence & Public Security segment.
Frasers Centrepoint Trust (SGX: J69U)
Frasers Centrepoint Trust, or FCT, is a retail REIT with a portfolio of nine suburban retail malls and an office building in Singapore.
The REIT had assets under management (AUM) of around S$7.1 billion as of 31 March 2025.
FCT’s portfolio of retail malls is located in heartland areas, which offers resilience even during a downturn as people need to shop for daily goods and necessities at these malls.
The REIT reported a commendable set of earnings for the first half of fiscal 2025 (1H FY2025) ending 31 March 2025.
Gross revenue rose 7.1% year on year to S$184.4 million while net property income (NPI) increased by 7.3% year on year to S$133.7 million.
Distribution per unit (DPU) inched up 0.5% year on year to S$0.06054.
The better performance was due to a full six-month contribution from the acquisition of an additional 24.5% interest in NEX Mall, along with better performance from Waterway Point.
Portfolio occupancy stood high at 99.5%, and the retail portfolio enjoyed a positive rental reversion of 9% for 1H FY2025.
Shopper traffic and tenant sales also rose 1% and 3.3%, respectively, for the period, reflecting healthy footfall and sales.
FCT announced the proposed acquisition of a 100% stake in Northpoint City’s South Wing which is pending approval via an extraordinary general meeting.
Should this acquisition go through, it will be DPU-accretive.
Meanwhile, FCT has also commenced the asset enhancement initiative (AEI) of Hougang Mall.
This is a phased AEI that commenced in April 2025 and should be completed by the third quarter of 2026.
The REIT manager is targeting a 7% return on investment and has achieved 64% pre-commitment for the revamped mall.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
