Singapore Telecommunications' newly appointed CEO, Chua Sock Koong (
Southeast Asia's biggest telecom firm on Thursday named the veteran SingTel executive to replace Lee Hsien Yang (李顯揚) next April.
Chua has worked in the company for 17 years, serving as chief financial officer since 1999.
She will be the first female chief executive officer at the firm, Singapore's dominant telecom operator and largest listed company with a market capitalization of S$38 billion (US$24 billion).
David Kennedy, Melbourne-based research director for regional telecoms with Ovum, a global consultancy, said Chua faces two challenges.
"The first challenge is maintaining profitability in their core markets which are Singapore and Australia. The second challenge is consolidating their position in their mobile operators that they currently hold stakes in," he said.
Kennedy warned the incoming CEO will not find it as easy as her predecessor to discover new areas for expansion.
"I think finding new growth markets will be more difficult than in the past because there is much more competition to invest in mobile operators in the region," he said.
Despite the challenges, analysts say Chua is well-placed to replace Lee who announced in July that he will step down after an 11-year tenure that saw the company expand from the Singapore market to become a key regional player.
Lee is the brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (
Chua was a key figure during Lee's tenure as he expanded SingTel's business portfolio into the region's fast-growing mobile markets, and beyond, through acquisitions to offset declining revenues in its tiny home market of 4 million people.
The multi-billion dollar expansion spree culminated in the S$13 billion purchase of Optus, the second-largest cellular operator in Australia.
SingTel has maintained its leadership in the Singapore market, while Optus is facing fierce competition in Australia where it is the second-biggest telco after Telstra.
Dennis Lee, a telecom analyst with Phillips Securities in Singapore, welcomed the appointment of Chua, whom he says has the pre-requisites to lead SingTel into its next growth phase.
"I think she will be a strong leader for SingTel ... she would be able to do the job," Lee said. "She knows the operations of SingTel quite well."
Kennedy described Chua as "someone with a strong track record and an intimate knowledge of the business."
He said the appointment signals that SingTel intend to maintain the strategy that they have been pursuing over the past few years.
"She will hit the ground running, definitely," he said.
Chua also held the title of CEO International, which placed her in charge of the telco's crucial overseas operations.
Chua, 49, indicated there will be no change in SingTel's strategy of looking to external markets for growth.
"SingTel is in a very strong position ... I would like to build on the strengths of the group," she said.
"The overseas business continues to be our area of growth ... We will continue to see how we can make sensible investments," she said, adding that existing stakes in mobile associates could be raised if conditions permit.
She maintained SingTel's confidence in the region had not been jolted by a coup against Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last Tuesday because those kind of risks are "something that we are always conscious of when we make investments overseas."
SingTel holds a 21.4 percent stake in Thailand's largest mobile operator, Advanced Info Service, which has a market share of 52 percent.
SingTel, which is majority owned by state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings, now derives two-thirds of its revenues from outside Singapore thanks to its aggressive expansion in recent years.
Apart from AIS, SingTel's other Asian stakes include Telkomsel in Indonesia, Globe Telecom in the Philippines and India's Bharti Group. In the year to March, the firm recorded a net profit after tax of S$4.16 billion on revenues of S$13.4 billion.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary