A free lunch is no way to reward shareholders

MY commentary last Friday, Investors should pay more attention to dividends, struck a chord of discontent among some readers who rang up or wrote in to express their unhappiness that Malaysian companies are too stingy when paying dividends. 

Bulbir Singh from Seremban lamented that he owned 1,000 shares in a company that paid him a mere 37 sen in dividend last year. He also expressed a sense of helplessness on how a small investor like him could succeed in getting company directors to pay higher dividends.