This article was first published in 2017, and we have updated it on 7 April 2026: You can now sell these shares and withdraw the proceeds in cash. This will take effect from 8 April 2026 onwards.
If you have never bought a stock before, it may come as a surprise to discover that you still have Singtel shares in your name. For many older Singaporeans, that is exactly the case. These are not shares they picked up through a brokerage account or built up over years of investing.
Instead, they trace back to a government-led effort in the 1990s to turn Singapore into a more share-owning society. The scheme applied only to discounted Singtel shares offered in 1993 and 1996, and more than a million Singaporeans bought into it at the time using their CPF savings.
Source: Singtel
There is also an FAQ on the CPF website specifically to address questions pertaining to them.
How Did These Singaporeans Come To Own These SingTel Shares?
Back in 1955, SingTel was a statutory board known as the Singapore Telephone Board (STB). In other words, it was part of the government. This changed in October 1993 when the company was listed on the Singapore Exchange.
Unlike the Initial Public Offering (IPO) we typically see these days, where a large majority of the available shares are privately placed via major financial institutions and a much smaller proportion is made available for retail investors to subscribe to, SingTel’s IPO was done in a different, much more unique way.
Singapore citizens were able to subscribe for SingTel shares at a discounted price. This was part of the government’s initiative at the time to encourage Singaporeans to participate in the nation’s wealth-building and to partially own a company, which forms a big part of the country.
The shares were offered in various tranches. A Singaporean who subscribed fully would have about 1,540 shares today, inclusive of bonus shares. The shares could only be bought through CPF savings.
How Many Singaporeans Own SingTel Shares Today?
According to Singtel, about 615,000 people still hold these special discounted shares today. The youngest of them is now above 50, and the median holder owns about 1,360 shares. On average, the median shareholder would have received about $5,000 in cumulative dividends over the years. Based on Singtel’s last done share price of $5.03 at the end of trading day for 6 April 2026, the shares will be worth about $6,840
Because a large number of Singaporeans may have subscribed to discounted SingTel shares without monitoring them over the past 30 years, there is a good chance that many older Singaporeans would still be SingTel shareholders today without even realising it.
To find out if you own some SingTel shares, simply log on to your CPF Account to check. Alternatively, you can also check your CDP account to see if you have some SingTel shares.
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