The company that could be crowned as Australia's first Dividend Aristocrat in 2025

Dividend Aristocrats are the cream of the crop of listed companies. Throughout the good times and bad - the recessions, market corrections and economic challenges - these companies have increased their dividends consistently every year for 25 years or more. 

Zero companies on the ASX have done this... But now one, Washington H. Soul Pattinson (ASX: SOL) is incredibly close. 

Over the past 24 years, Soul Patts, as it's affectionately known, has increased its dividends at a compound annual growth rate of 9.6% per annum. On Thursday, the diversified investment house - which long ago was just a pharmacy operator - announced an interim dividend of 40 cents per share, up 11.1% compared to the previous first half.

And CEO Todd Barlow believes this dividend growth won't be slowing anytime soon. 

"We organise the portfolio to generate that cash return so we can keep that track record alive because it's something that we're very proud of," Barlow says.

"There's no other company on the ASX that has a track record of increasing dividends 24 years in a row, so I certainly don't want it to [change] on my watch." 

In this C-Suite interview, Barlow takes investors through some of the highlights of Soul Patts' latest result, and shares why he doesn't believe profits are an accurate measure of investment performance (which I should say is convenient, given profits fell 33% during the half). 

He also addresses some of the firm's major investments of late - including bigger stakes in Perpetual (ASX: PPT), uranium producer NexGen Energy (ASX: NXG), and a renewed push into agriculture investments. 

Note: This interview was recorded on Thursday 21 March 2024. 

Timecodes

• 0:00 - Intro 
• 0:24 - Key results investors need to be aware of 
• 1:19 - Why statutory profits fell 33% 
• 1:52 - Why Soul Patt's believes profits are not an accurate measure of performance
• 2:24 - Dividend growth sustainability 
• 3:06 - Changes in macro views over the past 6 months 
• 4:10 - $2.4 billion in transactions during 1H24 + major portfolio changes 
• 5:33 - Perpetual stake upped to 15% 
• 6:59 - Credit and equity investments - where Barlow sees the most opportunity 
• 7:42 - Agriculture investments and outlook here
• 8:18 - Why Soul Patts doesn't provide guidance