SINGAPORE – Three chief executive officers won the Investors’ Choice Outstanding CEO Award given out by the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), or Sias, on Oct 21. They were recognised for excellence in corporate governance, sustainability, transparency and shareholder communications.
The three CEOs tell The Straits Times how they increased the shareholder value of their companies and the top traits a CEO should have.
Keppel CEO: Bring shareholders and staff along on the transformation journey
Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua faced a challenge about a decade ago, when the company was trying to transform from a conglomerate with distinctly separate businesses to an asset-light global asset manager and operator.
His goal: to communicate the multi-year transformation journey clearly to shareholders to ensure they were on board.
Loh recalled that at the time, there was very little synergy among the various businesses, which were listed separately and run vertically.
“The market wasn’t according us the valuation that we thought we should have,” he said.
Keppel privatised some listed entities and changed its business model from building projects to owning and operating specialised assets. This has significantly reduced its balance sheet and enabled Keppel to return capital to shareholders while growing its assets under management.
Loh said: “We set milestones because this multi-year transformation can be quite daunting for the market to absorb. It is important that we communicate to the market what are the milestones along the way, so that they can follow and track how we are progressing on our transformation.”
He added that “communication is key” for a listed company.
“In the old days, you might say, ‘Well, we are Keppel. Trust us. We know what we are doing.’ I think nowadays, even if the market does trust us, they also want to see tangible results,” Loh said.
He noted that the transformation was a fundamental rework of the business structure and its processes, not “just a narrative”. Keppel has also set and met its goals around aspects like monetisation of non-core assets and growth of funds under management.
Loh also emphasised the importance of ensuring that staff were invested in the transformation. Keppel uses engagement surveys to check that staff understand where it is headed, especially as it moves towards integrating AI to become an “AI native” firm.
Loh said: “I wouldn’t say that we started off by thinking about share performance.
“You start off by developing a strategy that will strengthen the company and allow it to be better valued, better appreciated by the market. Bring your board, your management, and your people along this journey, and the rest takes care of itself.”
When asked about the traits a good CEO should have, Loh said Keppel’s core values about being agile, having a “can-do” spirit, and trust are vital.
Being able to galvanise people is essential, he said. “Most importantly, they feel that they are part of this journey… not because you ask them to, but because they actually feel it, they can see it, and they support it.”
SGX CEO: Growing the local investing ecosystem and unlocking value
Growing the Singapore Exchange (SGX) as a business and developing the local ecosystem around it has been the focus of group CEO Loh Boon Chye in recent years.
The progress so far has been gratifying, he said, with initiatives such as Value Unlock introduced to help companies strengthen their investor relations and close valuation gaps, and the push to revitalise the local equities market.
“In the last two years in particular, it was very gratifying to see the whole ecosystem coming together to work on our stock market. SGX in many ways can’t do it alone,” he said.
“Importantly, this is not a one-time effort. This is just the start. Indeed, there’s been good momentum, but we need to sustain it to make this durable and sustainable.”
He added that SGX has also been working to broaden its offerings of investment tools in a macro environment that is more fragmented, and that offerings go beyond access into just one market or asset class.
“It is now really about portfolio risk management, and our focus to broaden that is not just a one-year effort,” Loh said.
Some of his plans include growing the foreign exchange (FX) business and commodities business, with SGX’s expansion of its gold segment.
But besides growth, the market also needs to ensure transparency and good governance, which is done through clear communication with shareholders.
“What we’re talking about is more than disclosure – it’s about firms being able to explain the business model, dynamics, strategy, and then how the company can fit into the environment they’re operating in, allocating capital as efficiently as they can,” he said.
He noted that the take-up for the Value Unlock programme, which offers two grant schemes, has been “robust” and that there has been increased interest in mid-cap stocks.
“I would think the uptick is likely to improve further from here, but we will have to give it time,” he said.
As for the traits of a good CEO, Loh said it is not just about the leader, but also the team and colleagues.
“The leader will have to set the direction with inputs, agree on it, take accountability… It’s also important to have empathy and take feedback. There’re too many things that I have to learn that I may not know, so I can refine my thinking or my view,” he said.
Thakral CEO: Keeping positive in crisis and finding opportunities
Thakral Corporation CEO Inderbethal Singh Thakral recalled the time when the company had a share in the digital camera market in China.
But around 2013, mobile phones started to be widely used for photography and the digital camera market vanished.
“So we were like, ‘Where do we go?’” Bethal, as he is popularly known, said. The company pivoted into drones, which is now a growing part of its lifestyle business. It also took a leap into beauty products and fragrances.
Thakral now has a lifestyle segment, including drones, beauty brands and coffee, and an investment division that includes real estate in markets like Australia and India.
Bethal said: “We take a very long-term view of things. So when things are good, we are also studying what’s next for us. When things are bad, we are not shaken up so much that we lose our heads and can’t function.”
He added that a crisis can also offer opportunities.
“Things can’t get better every day, so let’s focus on what’s coming.”
A good CEO should also be patient, Bethal said. “You strategise accurately, then you simply have to be patient because it will happen. (Projects) may get delayed… I can get frustrated, or I can simply play harder.”
He is also hopeful for Thakral’s future plan to spin off selected lifestyle business segments and list them on the SGX mainboard.
He hopes this will allow the team to have the “firepower” to grow that specific part of the business and that the market will respond to it.
One area he hopes to improve is communicating the business to the market. Thakral is participating in the Elevate scheme under Value Unlock to articulate the company’s strategies to investors.
“We have laid the foundation for growth in almost every sector we are in,” he said. “It’s about how we communicate that.”
