Comments on: Net Profit, EBITDA, Operating Cashflow and Free Cashflow in Dividend Investing

By: 5 steps to make the power of compounding work in dividend income investing

5 steps to make the power of compounding work in dividend income investing — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:46:01 +0000

[...] At Investment Moats, we define a sustainable dividend payout either as a dividend payout less than free cash flow or net profit. [Explaining free cash flow and net profit >>] [...]

By: Identifying the Business Model of your Dividend Income Stock

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By: Starhub holds steady for third quarter 2010

Starhub holds steady for third quarter 2010 — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:33:07 +0000

[...] economics means that should you invest in Starhub for dividend yield, you will have to look at free cashflow performance as well as shifting business [...]

By: donmihaihai

donmihaihai — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:59:02 +0000

FY2003 : – 87M
FY2005 : – 63M
FY2009 : -128M

By: donmihaihai

donmihaihai — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:57:00 +0000

[Quote]A good example is SPH.

It’s free cashflow is consistently negative taking away the cashflow from property investments.[Quote]

I don’t know how you calculate free cashflow by taking away the cashflow from property investments. But I am curious that You put SPH free cashflow is consistently negative.

Cashflow from operating activities
FY2002 – 89M
FY2003 –
FY2004 – 73M
FY2005 –
FY2006 – 0.1M
FY2007 – 57M
FY2008 – 24M
FY2009 –

SPH cashflow from operating activities is after dividend payment. That mean dividend payment need to add back to get REAL operating cashflow. Since SPH dividend payments range from 195M to 433M, what I see is consistently POSITIVE operating cashflow. Yes that include FY2009.

Of course, CAPEX(new or maintanence) must be deducted to get free cashflow and for SPH case, whether SPH is using investment gains/incomes to finance CAPEX or otherwise, SPH is consistently generating cash from investment activities. Which mean it doesn’t matter how one count them, SPH is generating free cashflow consistently.

So I do not agree with your analysis and why don’t you put down the number and lets see why the diff.