Oversea-Chinese Banking's Earnings Easily Cover the Distributions We aren't too impressed by dividend yields unless they can be sustained over time. Based on the last payment, Oversea-Chinese Banking's earnings were much higher than the dividend, but it wasn't converting those earnings into cash flow. No cash flows could definitely make returning cash to shareholders difficult, or at least mean the balance sheet will come under pressure. The next year is set to see EPS grow by 12.0%. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 46% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range. While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. The dividend has gone from S$0.30 in 2012 t