SingTel CEO Lee Hsien Yang to call it quits
Lee Hsien Yang, the chief executive officer of Singapore Telecommunications, Asia’s fifth-biggest phone company, said on Friday he would resign from the company, but gave no reason for his decision.
By Agencies |
SINGAPORE: Lee Hsien Yang, the chief executive officer of Singapore Telecommunications, Asia’s fifth-biggest phone company, said on Friday he would resign from the company, but gave no reason for his decision.
The announcement, which came after the stock market had closed, caught investors off guard. “It’s certainly surprising, it’s not something they’ve been tele-graphing,” said Hugh Young, managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore.
He added that “an emotional, knee-jerk reaction downward would be possible” in SingTel’s share price when the stock market opens. Temasek Holdings, the Singapore state investment firm, has a 54% stake in SingTel.
Lee Hsien Yang has been chief executive officer of Singapore’s largest listed firm since May ’95. The company said he would continue in his role as chief executive officer until a replacement had been found.
Lee told a press conference he did not have a specific reason for wanting to step down. “It’s really hard to find a reason. At some point in time you decide that you have been in a role for some time and you would want to look for change, and 12 years us a very long time for tenure of any CEO,” he told a media briefing.
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“I have thoroughly enjoyed my role, it’s been both challenging and great fun.” He added now was “as good a time as any” for him to step down. “I have always indicated to the board that I will not be here forever. There’s now a strong management team in place, and given the strength of the company today, we would have both the options of credible internal candidates as well as serious external candidates who may be interested.”SingTel chairman Chumpol NamLamlieng said the board had only just started the process of searching for his successor. “At the moment there is no time frame specified for this but we would take a thorough look at candidates internally and externally,” he added.
Lee said he had not thought about what he wanted to do next. “At this point in time, I have neither solicited nor received any offers.”
But politics was out. “I’ve said many times before that I do not think politics is something I am suited for. I have no great interest to pursue a career in politics,” he added.
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Lee joined SingTel in April 1994 as Executive Vice President of Local Services and took over at the helm a year later. SingTel shares, which made their debut on the local bourse on Nov. 1, 1993, have traded below the price of S$3.60 at which they were sold to institutional investors for over six years. The stock closed at S$2.47 on Friday.Facing a small home market of just 4.4 million people, where over nine out of 10 individuals own a mobile phone, SingTel has spent S$17 billion ($10 billion) in recent years buying operators in high-growth Asian nations with fewer cellphone users, and in the bigger Australian market.
It now derives about 75 per cent of revenues and two-thirds of pre-tax earnings from operations outside Singapore. SingTel owns 21.5 per cent of Thailand’s Advanced Info Service Plc., 30.8 per cent of India’s Bharti Group, 44.6 per cent of Globe Telecom Inc. in the Philippines, 35 per cent of Indonesia’s PT Telkomsel, and 45 per cent of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd.
(Additional reporting by Wee Sui Lee)
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