SINGAPORE (July 1): Singtel group CEO Chua Sock Koong suffered yet another year of pay cut after the telco reported lower earnings for the most recent year FY2020 ended March 31 2020.
According to the company’s annual report published earlier today, Chua’s “earned” pay was just below $3.1 million, down 11.4% from $3.5 million in the previous FY19.
Her total “paid” package was $4.63 million, just slightly lower than the $4.9 million she received for FY19 and that’s what she actually took home for the year.
The difference between the “earned” and “paid” packages is because of compensation components pegged to share and share options as well as other variables.
Not all listed companies here disclose the exact details of their top management remuneration and Singtel is one of the rare few that has been consistently doing so.
“The lower remuneration and annual bonuses for management this year reflects our financial performance for FY 2020, which was one of the most challenging years in Singtel’s history, as we faced intensified competition across our businesses, adverse court rulings in India and the unprecedented COVID-19 public health crisis,” says Singtel.
“A wage freeze has been implemented across the company this year, except for operational and support staff, as we brace ourselves for more uncertainty.”
For FY20, Singtel booked impairments on its associate business in India and coupled with a tougher operating environment, it reported earnings of just $1.1 billion, down 65% y-o-y from $3.1 billion in FY19.
Shareholders are being asked to make do with a final dividend of 5.45 cents, versus 10.7 cents they've grown used to receiving in previous years.
Chua notes in the annual report that the telco has observed “unprecedented digital adoption” by both consumers and enterprises as a result of the need to work from home.
“Having digitalised our operations and services in recent years, we’ve responded to this extraordinary shift online and increased demand for our services almost seamlessly. As such, we are well positioned to leverage this accelerated digitalisation to grow both our core and digital businesses,” says Chua.
She briefly described how the telco, which recently won a 5G license, will grow this market differently from the existing 4G environment.
Singtel will move beyond access and connectivity, which consumers are used to enjoying, to creating new use cases for businesses with innovative platforms, applications and services, so as to “reposition ourselves for growth in the converging ecosystem of tech and telco,” says Chua.
