HIS AND HER

SIA, SingTel top poll of outstanding Asian firms
Bryan Lee
27 June 2007
Straits Times

The carrier was crowned the best transport company in the region while the phone company won the best telco title in the annual survey by Finance Asia magazine.

Both companies were also top of the class when compared with their local peers.

SIA snagged the Best Managed Company award for Singapore firms, dethroning SingTel, the champion for the past three years.

The telco slipped to No. 3 in the management rankings, behind property developer CapitaLand.

But SingTel was rated to have the best corporate governance, trumping SIA, and was joint-winner for best investor relations with CapitaLand.

SingTel was also considered to be most committed to a strong dividend policy, ahead of rivals StarHub and M1 and defence group Singapore Technologies Engineering.

The telco is paying out $3.3 billion in dividends for the year ended March 31, taking its cumulative payout since 2000 to $20 billion - or 87 per cent of its net profits.

CapitaLand's Mr Olivier Lim picked up the best chief financial officer award, echoing a similar win at the recent Singapore Corporate Awards.

The survey, the seventh to be conducted by the magazine, polled 255 investment professionals and equity analysts from 16 countries on 10 Asian markets.

Hong Kong companies were particularly well rated when compared with their peers in the region.

Hutchison Whampoa was voted best conglomerate, Sun Hung Kai Properties took the real estate title and CLP Holdings snagged the power firm award.

In particular, Sun Hung Kai walked away with the territory's management, corporate governance and investor relations awards.

The vote for Asia's technology sector was split between hardware and software, with South Korea's Samsung Electronics sharing top kudos with India's Infosys Technologies.

Both were rated the best managed companies in their respective countries.