As the next quarter's financial reporting season approaches rapidly, several real estate investment trust companies will begin releasing their earnings and business updates at the end of this month, followed closely by blue chip stocks in early May.

Investors will closely monitor a series of financial report results to see which companies have announced dividends. This article will focus on four Singapore stocks that may increase dividends for investors.

Boustead Singapore Limited

Boustead Singapore Limited (BSL) is a corporate group with four main departments - energy related engineering, real estate, geospatial technology, and healthcare. The group carries out projects in 93 countries and regions worldwide.

BSL reported outstanding earnings for the first half of the 2024 fiscal year (1H FY2024) as of September 30, 2023. Operating revenue increased by 49% yoy to SGD 367.9 million, and gross profit increased by 42% yoy to SGD 105.3 million. After deducting one-time items, the net profit surged by 89% yoy to SGD 25.8 million. The group's free cash flow surged 135% yoy to SGD 97.4 million.

BSL will maintain its intermediate dividend at SGD 0.015, unchanged from a year ago. In early February this year, the group privatized its real estate division, Boustead Projects, with a stake of 99.45% held by the group. At the same time, BSL's geospatial technology department also has a backlog of engineering orders worth 433 million Singapore dollars and a backlog of delayed services worth 120 million Singapore dollars.

Frasers Logistics&Commercial Trust

Frasers Logistics&Commercial Trust (FLCT) is a logistics and commercial real estate investment trust company with 108 properties in five countries. As of December 31, 2023, the assets managed by real estate investment trusts amounted to SGD 6.7 billion.

FLCT has announced encouraging business updates for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024. The occupancy rate of the investment portfolio is as high as 95.8%, and the rental return rate of the investment portfolio is also 18.2%. The trust will benefit from the completion of the pre financing project at the Port of Ellesmere in the UK. FLCT also has another pre financing project in the Netherlands, Maastricht Logistics Development, which will be completed in the first half of the 2025 fiscal year.

In addition, the trust has also acquired 89.9% equity in four properties in Germany, which is expected to add value to the DPU and NAV per unit. As of December 31, 2023, FLCT has a low total leverage ratio of 30.7% and a significant debt balance of SGD 1.1 billion for acquisition.

NetLink NBN Trust

NetLink NBN Trust is a part of the NetLink Group responsible for designing, constructing, owning, and operating the passive fiber optic network infrastructure for Singapore's National Broadband Network (NBN).

The group reported encouraging earnings for the first nine months of fiscal year 2024 (9M FY2024) as of December 31, 2023. Due to higher connection revenue and installation related revenue, operating revenue increased by 3.2% yoy to 309.4 million Singapore dollars. During this period, the net profit increased by 4% yoy to SGD 85.1 million.

The increase in residential and non residential connections of NetLink NBN Trust will drive its revenue and DPU. As of December 31, 2023, the number of residential connections has increased from 1.49 million as of March 31, 2023 to 1.5 million. The number of non residential connections increased from 52,100 to 53,200 during the same period.

NetLink NBN Trust plans to expand its network coverage and densification, while exploring opportunities to invest in stable cash flow telecommunications infrastructure businesses overseas. The DPU of the group increased by 1.1% to 0.0265 Singapore dollars in the first half of the 2023 fiscal year ending on September 30, 2023.

Singtel

Singtel is the largest telecommunications company in Singapore, providing a range of services including mobile, broadband, pay TV, and network security.

Despite being affected by macroeconomic and foreign exchange fluctuations, the telecommunications company still performed strongly in the first nine months of fiscal year 2024. The basic net profit increased by 7% yoy, and the operating profit of various growth engines performed well. Singtel's data center business Nxera is rapidly expanding, with capital expenditures provided by green loans and KKR investments.

With these positive developments, the group is expected to pay dividends to new shareholders within a higher range of the new dividend policy in the fiscal year 2024. The telecommunications company also plans to achieve a low double-digit investment return rate by fiscal year 2026 (8% as of fiscal year 2023).