Australia Foundation Investment Co Ltd (ASX: AFI), or AFIC for short, shares have long been a popular choice on the ASX for investors seeking hands-off, conservative investing and a reliable stream of dividend income.
As a listed investment company (LIC), AFIC owns and manages a portfolio of underlying investments on behalf of its shareholders. In this company's case, this portfolio mostly consists of a diversified pool of ASX blue-chip dividend shares. AFIC runs a much smaller international stock portfolio as well.
Some of its largest current portfolio holdings include BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL), and Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG).
Some of its international stocks include Netflix, Spotify, Mastercard, and Alphabet.
As this portfolio is entirely managed by AFIC's management, many investors enjoy being able to pass off the tough work of stock picking themselves to AFIC and simply keep its shares in the proverbial bottom drawer.
The company has a long track record of delivering reliable returns to its investors. AFIC has been around for almost 100 years, since 1928 to be precise. Over the ten years to 31 October, it has delivered a total shareholder return of 8.2% per annum. That figure includes share price growth as well as dividend and franking credit returns.
As we touched on above, AFIC shares have also proven to be a dependable source of passive dividend income. Shareholders haven't seen a year-to-year dividend cut in more than three decades.
Just this morning, AFIC gave its shareholders some good news on that front.
AFIC shares: Two special dividends for 2026 revealed
In an ASX announcement, the LIC revealed that AFIC shareholders can expect a special dividend to accompany the next two dividends that will be paid out. That would be the interim dividend that will be revealed on 21 January 2026, as well as the final dividend to be declared on 27 July. Both of these special dividends will be worth 2.5 cents per share and will come with full franking credits attached.
Obviously, we don't yet know how much the ordinary dividends that will come alongside these special payouts will be worth yet. Over 2025, AFIC's interim dividend came in at 12 cents per share, while the final dividend was worth 14.5 cents per share. The latter was also accompanied by a 5-cent per share special dividend. All three 2025 payments came fully franked.
Here's how the company explained the reasoning behind next year's special dividends:
The Board recognises that AFIC has built up a substantial balance of franking credits over recent years, particularly through the generation of realised capital gains. These franking credits are valuable to our shareholders, and the Board has considered the most appropriate means of distributing some of this balance without compromising the underlying ordinary dividends going forward.
No doubt owners of AFIC shares will welcome this news today. At the current price of $7.13, this LIC is trading on a trailing dividend yield of 3.72%.
