A bigger dividend cheque feels good.
For anyone living off their portfolio, though, the size of this year’s payout matters less than whether it turns up again next year.
Three SGX-listed companies lifted their total dividends in their latest financial year.
Each did it for a different reason.
And those reasons are what separate income you can count on from income you got lucky with.
The question for each of these stocks is simple.
Does the cash coming in comfortably cover the cash going out to shareholders?
Here’s how the three stack up.
Credit Bureau Asia (SGX: TCU), or CBA
CBA supplies credit and risk information to banks, financial institutions and government bodies across Southeast Asia.
It runs credit bureaus in Singapore, Cambodia and Myanmar, and sells commercial risk and business information through a partnership with Dun & Bradstreet.
For the year ended 31 December 2025, revenue edged up 0.7% year on year (YoY) to S$60.1 million.
Profit attributable to owners slipped 4.4% to S$10.7 million, held back by lower interest income, a softer contribution from the Cambodia joint venture, and higher staff costs.
The dividend still went up: a final dividend of S$0.022 brought the full-year payout to S$0.042, against S$0.040 a year ago.
What backs that dividend is the more important part.
Free cash flow came in at S$27.2 million, comfortably above what the company pays out.
The business carries no borrowings and sits on S$71.1 million in liquid assets, made up of S$46.5 million in cash and S$24.7 million in treasury bills and money market funds.
This is income drawn from a recurring, asset-light data business.
The honest caveat is that profit is drifting down, not up.
The cover is wide today.
Retirees need to watch whether interest income and the Cambodia recovery hold the line into FY2026.
Valuetronics (SGX: BN2)
Valuetronics is an electronics manufacturing services provider, handling everything from design to production for consumer and industrial customers out of China and Vietnam.
The headline payout move here is the biggest of the three.
Valuetronics declared a total FY2026 dividend of HK$0.38, up 41% on the year.
It also raised its dividend policy to a target of 50% to 70% of net profit, up from 30% to 50%.
On top of that, management plans to return around HK$300 million in surplus cash to shareholders across FY2027 and FY2028 through special dividends and share buybacks, with roughly HK$146 million earmarked for FY2027.
That generosity sits against a weaker profit line.
Net profit fell 33.1% YoY to HK$111.4 million, dragged down by a HK$48.4 million net loss on its Trio AI investment and a higher tax bill; strip out Trio AI and adjusted net profit was HK$159.9 million.
The cash tells a healthier story.
Free cash flow swung to positive HK$178.4 million from negative HK$20.1 million a year ago, as capital spending dropped sharply once the prior year’s GPU and AI-hardware outlay rolled off.
The group ended the year with HK$1.21 billion in cash and no borrowings.
So the income here rests on two things.
A large cash pile, and a stated intent to hand it back.
Neither rests on rising profit, and management has flagged a fluid environment of US tariffs and supply-chain uncertainty.
The capital return is real, but treat the special dividends and buybacks as a planned drawdown of surplus cash, not a permanent lift to the ordinary payout.
Old Chang Kee (SGX: 5ML), or OCK
The curry puff maker sells its snacks through retail outlets at high-traffic spots and through delivery, catering and business supply.
Its total payout rose too, to S$0.03 per share from S$0.02 a year ago.
But the make-up matters.
Of that S$0.03, only S$0.02 is the recurring dividend — a S$0.01 interim and a S$0.01 proposed final; the remaining S$0.01 is a one-off special dividend.
That distinction matters because OCK’s recurring business is under pressure.
For the fiscal year ended 31 March 2026, revenue edged up 1.5% to S$103.5 million, but net profit fell 15.8% to S$9.6 million, weighed down by higher staff costs, more depreciation and lower interest income.
The cash position remains sound.
Free cash flow was a positive S$21.0 million, down from S$23.2 million, and the company holds S$61.6 million in cash and deposits against just S$1.4 million of debt.
Inflation and manpower shortages remain the headwinds management is steering against.
For a retiree, the read is straightforward.
The ordinary dividend this year is S$0.02, and the special S$0.01 is a welcome bonus, but it should not be banked as income that repeats.
Get Smart: A rising payout is not the same as a lasting one
All three lifted their dividends into a softer profit environment.
That is the tell.
None of them did it on the back of booming earnings; they did it on free cash flow and balance-sheet strength.
That is the right way round, and it is also the thing a retiree has to keep checking.
A bigger number on the dividend cheque means little if the cash flow behind it is thinning.
So ask the harder questions:
Where does the cash come from?
Is the special dividend a bonus, or a crutch?
Is the recurring payout covered, or stretched?
Get those answers, and the size of this year’s cheque becomes the least interesting thing about it.
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Disclosure: Calvina L. does not own shares of any companies mentioned. Chin Hui Leong contributed to the article and owns shares of CBA.
