Frustrated with Sg reits changing to semi annual distribution

Just to let some steam off.
I guess I didn’t really read CICT last announcement clearly, but now then I realize they are going to probably pay dividends in Mar / Sep instead of Feb / May / Aug / Nov.

All the reits are also phasing their dividend payouts to end qtr month.

I planned for a certain amount of dividends to collect this year, but with all this phasing backwards, I feel the dividend yield of my portfolio dropping again after all the call-down from covid last year.

So in Q1 this year, CICT paid the dividends for Q4 2020 in March.
Compared to previous years, delay payout by 1 month.

Then now with semi-annual distribution, expect H1 dividends (Jan to Jun 2021) to be paid probably close to end September. Then no dividends to be paid for rest of year.

CICT dividends paid for 12 months in 2020 (based on payout date, off 2019/2020 income) = 10 cents.

Current forecast for CICT dividends for 2021 consists of
a) 1.74 cents in Q1 2021 (for Q4 2020)
b) i expect maybe 6 cents for Jan to Jun 2021 to be paid late September.
Total payout for 2021 probably 7.7 cents which is probably like even lower than dividends received 2020.

Its like the bad news is never ending. I was probably too optimistic when I budgeted to receive 12 cents for 2021.

Oh boy, for a dividend portfolio, the annual dividends per year is just shrinking year on year. Oh dear… did I misplace my trust in CICT?

I think the decision to go from quarterly to semi-annual dividend payments and results is short sighted on the part of the REITS. They are happy to hide from the market and claim cost savings from fewer distributions. From the shareholder point of view as you pointed out, it hits cashflow for those of us relying on dividends. It also reduces the motivation to buy the stock to 2 times per year to pick up the dividend instead of 4 times, reducing liquidity in the market.

It is interesting that in other markets, REITS pay monthly.

The current Q1 business update deck is actually very difficult to read.
If anything, it is impossible to try to compare vs last year, or even estimate the amount of dividends that we have “earned” from Q1. I did some calculation, and guess that the full dividend payout for 2021 might be around 13 cents, but we would only get half in Sep, so its about 8 cents for 2021 / 2.19 = yield of 3.65% which is really really low.

But 2022, we could get 13 to 14 cents, which would bring it up to I guess 13.5/2.19 = 6.2%.

disclaimer - these are my estimates ah. But it is definitely right to say I feel very deprived for 2021.

I guess they are trying to use the time to buffer up their working capital and hide a bit of the rental collection difficulties they are having, while still able to go shopping for properties if they can… by not paying dividends.

Redid my dividend forecast… going forward I guess I would collect a lot of dividends in Mar and Sep, but pitiful amounts in all other months. I kind of dont even know how to balance out the cashflow evenly across months going forward.

Will need to do homework. I already identified S27 (pays Jan / Apr / Jul / Oct) and possibly would have to use CFA as an intermediate measure for Feb / May / Aug / Nov since the reits dont want to pay quarterly anymore.

Its like only Parkway is saying its ok to maintain quarterly payouts. All the other reits are just trying to hide themselves.