Singtel tops Governance and Transparency Index, with SGX a close second

By

Lee Meixianleemx@sph.com.sg@LeeMeixianBT

Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) has reclaimed its status as the Republic's most well-governed and transparent company, according to the Governance and Transparency Index (GTI) 2015 released on Tuesday.

PHOTO: REUTERS

 Top 20 Companies of GTI 2015

AUG 18, 201511:01 AM

SINGAPORE Telecommunications (Singtel) has reclaimed its status as the Republic's most well-governed and transparent company, according to the Governance and Transparency Index (GTI) 2015 released on Tuesday.

The telco edged up from second place last year to clinch the top spot. It had also topped the index from 2009 to 2012. This year, it beat its competitors with an overall score of 118 points.

Singtel was lauded for upholding standards such as engaging professional consulting firms to independently evaluate remuneration packages for its directors and key management and disclosing the detailed policy on payment of dividends.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) followed closely in second spot with 114 points, while Keppel Corporation was ranked third with 112 points. CapitaLand and DBS Group shared the fourth position with 111 points each.

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GTI 2015 ranked a total of 639 SGX-listed companies which released their 2014 annual reports by May 31, 2015.

The index, launched in 2009, is jointly published every year by CPA Australia and NUS Business School's Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations, with The Business Times as a media partner.

The GTI 2015 study also found significant overall progress in companies' governance practices, with the mean score increasing from 42.1 in 2014 to 47.6 this year. This is the highest year-on-year improvement since the index's inception.

From next year, companies will be examined under a new framework, the Singapore Governance and Transparency Index (SGTI), given dramatic changes in the business-operating environment in recent years, and stakeholders seeking greater transparency and accountability from companies.

Under SGTI, companies will continue to be assessed on matters relating to board, remuneration, accountability and audit, and transparency and investor relations.

Additional factors such as how they handle a broader range of stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, regulators and the community, will also be taken into account.

The producers of this index will examine existing models of corporate governance assessments across the world in the next few months, and apply the relevant lessons to the index.

    

Gold struggles as US rate hike looms

Gold was trapped in narrow ranges on Tuesday, struggling to move higher as investors looked to a near-term increase in US interest rates in the face of mostly firm economic signals. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

AUG 18, 201511:18 AM

[MANILA] Gold was trapped in narrow ranges on Tuesday, struggling to move higher as investors looked to a near-term increase in US interest rates in the face of mostly firm economic signals.

Gold ended a seven-week losing streak last week as China's shock devaluation of its yuan helped spur some safe-haven bids. With the yuan since stabilising, market focus has shifted back to a looming hike in US interest rates.

But investors may have fully discounted any rate increase this year, said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group, given the relative stability in gold prices. "For one to two weeks, it's going to oscillate around US$1,100," Mr To said. "I think the rate hike has already been discounted fully whether it happens in September or December." Spot gold was flat at US$1,117.80 an ounce by 0255 GMT, after rising modestly on Monday.

Bullion scaled a three-week high of US$1,126.31 last week as the yuan devaluation fueled some speculation that the Fed could hold off on raising interest rates this year.

US gold for December delivery was similarly little changed at US$1,117.40 an ounce.

Data on Monday showed US homebuilder sentiment rose in August to its highest level since a matching reading almost a decade ago, helping counter a plunge in New York manufacturing activity to its weakest since 2009.

Solid jobs growth, rebounding retail sales and a housing sector on the mend suggest the Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates this year, perhaps at the next policy meeting in September.

That had weighed on the price of non-interest bearing gold. There should be more clues on the Fed's thinking regarding interest rates when the minutes of the US central bank's July 28-29 meeting are released on Wednesday.

Investors withdrew US$2.3 billion from gold exchange-traded products in July as the dollar strengthened.

Spot silver dipped 0.4 per cent to US$15.25 an ounce, while platinum was steady at US$993 and so was palladium at US$611.50.

REUTERS

    

Indonesian rescuers reach crash site, plane 'destroyed': official

This handout photograph released by the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) on Aug 17, 2015 shows the wreckage from a Trigana Air ATR 42-300 twin-turboprop scattered amongst trees in the mountainous area of Oksibil district, in Papua province

AUG 18, 201510:25 AM

[JAYAPURA] Rescuers on Tuesday reached the site in remote eastern Indonesia where a plane crashed carrying 54 people and large sums of money, and found the aircraft "completely destroyed", a search and rescue official said.

"Our rescuers have reached the crash site," Bambang Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, told AFP, adding they arrived at the location in Papua province at 9.30 am (0030 GMT). "The plane has crashed, it is completely destroyed." "Everything was in pieces and part of the plane is burnt. We could see burn marks on some pieces," he said.

He said rescuers were still looking for survivors at the site, which is in dense forest in a mountainous area, but the chances of finding anyone alive were "slim".

Mr Soelisyo added rescuers were also hunting for the plane's flight data recorders, known as black boxes, which should shed light on what caused the accident.

The plane operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana Air lost contact Sunday as it flew in bad weather from Jayapura, the capital of Papua, to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains to the south.

The ATR 42-300 twin-turboprop aircraft was carrying 49 passengers and five crew, as well as 6.5 billion rupiah (S$661,000) in cash, which were social assistance funds intended for distribution to poor families.

AFP

    

54 bodies found at Indonesian plane crash site, ‘no survivors’: official

People look at a passenger and baggage manifest of the crashed Trigana Air Service flight at the airport in Sentani, near Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia, on Aug 17, 2015 

PHOTO: REUTERS

AUG 18, 201511:39 AM

[JAKARTA] The bodies of all 54 people who were on board a plane that crashed in remote eastern Indonesia at the weekend were found on Tuesday at the crash site, an official said.  

“There are no survivors. All fifty-four bodies have been found,” transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata told AFP. The Trigana Air plane was carrying 49 passengers, among them five children, and five crew.

REUTERS

    

Bangkok blast: Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes narrowly escapes bomb

Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes revealed on Tuesday he narrowly escaped a bomb that exploded outside a religious shrine in Bangkok, with a last minute change of route likely saving his life. 

PHOTO: LAMC PRODUCTIONS

AUG 18, 201512:26 PM

[SYDNEY] Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes revealed on Tuesday he narrowly escaped a bomb that exploded outside a religious shrine in Bangkok, with a last minute change of route likely saving his life.

Barnes, who as lead singer of Cold Chisel belts out songs such as Working Class Man and Khe Sanh, was in the Thai capital with his Thai-Australian wife and other family members, including his daughter and grandson.

They initially planned to walk past the streetside Erawan Shrine to a dinner venue but instead decided to use an overhead walkway as it would be easier with the pram they were pushing.

The bomb exploded on Monday barely 50m away as they were on the walkway, killing at least 21 people and injuring more than 120 others in an attack authorities said targeted foreigners.

"I had the pram with the grandson ... walking past the shrine would have been very difficult because it's a bumpy road. So I said to the kids 'follow me, I'll take you this other way'," Barnes told Australian Associated Press.

"We were literally walking between two buildings on the walkway when the bomb went off. It was just frightening." The Cold Chisel frontman, one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time, added that: "I knew it was a bomb straight away."

Barnes is now trying to organise flights so his family can return to Australia as soon as possible.

"I was coming back to put out this record so it all sort of pales into insignificance really. I just want to get my family home in one piece," he said.

No Australians have so far been either confirmed dead or injured.

AFP

    

Bangkok blast toll rises to 21, Hong Kong tourists among dead

The death toll from a bomb blast in the Thai capital rose to 21 on Tuesday with 123 wounded, police said, with two Hong Kong tourists among those killed in the attack on a popular religious shrine. 

PHOTO: EPA

AUG 18, 20158:45 AM

[BANGKOK] The death toll from a bomb blast in the Thai capital rose to 21 on Tuesday with 123 wounded, police said, with two Hong Kong tourists among those killed in the attack on a popular religious shrine.

"The death toll is now 21," police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told AFP, adding 123 people were wounded.

"The bomb aimed at killing as many people as possible as the shrine is crowded at around 6 to 7 pm," he said of the Monday evening attack.

Authorities said earlier that the blast at the Erawan shrine in downtown Bangkok killed 10 Thais as well as at least one Chinese national and a Filipino citizen. The nationalities of the other people who died were not immediately clear.

Hong Kong's immigration department said Tuesday that it had "confirmed that two Hong Kong residents deceased in the incident" with six others injured and sent to hospital for treatment.

China's official Xinhua news agency said Monday that two Chinese nationals had died, while the governments of Singapore and Taiwan reported that some of their citizens were injured.

The attack drew quick expressions of grief from around the world, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office releasing a statement saying he was shocked.

AFP