Charter minimum dividend
A rule in the articles setting the floor for payments on preferred shares: a share of profit, a share of par value or another prescribed method.
How to read the number
This is what brings a preferred share closer to an obligation: the base and the method are fixed in advance instead of being decided afresh each year.
When the metric lies
The floor is computed from profit under the accounting standard the articles name. Profit under any other standard is irrelevant to the calculation — and is usually the figure a reader sees first.
Also known as: minimum preferred dividend