Published April 23, 2009

Smooth sailing at ST Engg AGM

By CHEW XIANG

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SINGAPORE Technologies Engineering's annual general meeting, held yesterday at the Holiday Inn Park View, passed happily almost without incident. It was over in an hour and the buffet spread afterwards was a reasonable use of shareholders' cash - fairly spartan, in other words.

The only hiccup came midway when one shareholder asked how directors on the board were selected. Some directors, he said, hold too many posts and may find themselves overstretched.

Chairman Peter Seah, who has multiple board seats, said: 'I don't wish to debate any article (but) when shareholders evaluate board members, they should evaluate based on performance of the company and not pick into individual board members.'

He added: 'Members of the board are very experienced people and very highly regarded in their positions. We select based on what they can contribute . . . many have been on the board for a few years.'

An article in yesterday's BT ('Singapore's board of busy directors') said that a study of 3,816 directors by National University of Singapore's Corporate Governance & Financial Reporting Centre (CGFRC) showed that 51 of them sat on at least six boards.

Mr Seah was the CEO of the former Overseas Union Bank and has 33 years of banking experience, while others on the board include chief of defence force Desmond Kuek; the Ministry of Defence's chief defence scientist Quek Tong Boon; former deputy managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore Koh Beng Seng; as well as lawyers Philip Pillai and Davinder Singh.

All resolutions, including those raised at a subsequent, brief, extraordinary general meeting, were passed almost without demur. One shareholder asked if, with the company holding over $1 billion in cash, might not more be disbursed in dividends.

'We are probably one of the most generous companies in Singapore in terms of dividend payout,' said Mr Seah, noting the 100 per cent payout of earnings this year of 15.8 cents per share. The cash also means that 'we don't see any need' to call for a rights issue of shares for extra capital, he said.

Another shareholder pointed to some $457 million in trade debtors past due but not impaired, and asked how the management was keeping up with collections. 'We monitor credit risk very carefully,' said CEO Tan Pheng Hock. Some orders are backed by letters of credit, he said, while for others, delivery of equipment is stayed until payment is made.