In a major restructuring exercise, Singtel has merged its consumer and enterprise business units into one operating company.
Singtel is also merging its regional data centre business, subsea cable and satellite carrier business as well as its cloud orchestration and 5G MEC (mobile edge computing) platform, Paragon, into a standalone infrastructure unit called Digital InfraCo.
The company said the restructuring was part of its “strategic reset and ongoing efforts to restructure and reposition the company for growth”.
The restructuring exercise by the telco has been on since 2021 when it spun off its ICT arm NCS so that it could accelerate its expansion into Asia Pacific as an autonomous business unit.
In July 2022, Singtel further decentralised its organisational structure by transferring the management of Optus Enterprise to Australia, effectively giving Optus more operational autonomy and direct accountability.
The changes have necessitated a number of new appointments and modifications to Singtel’s management structure and committee.
Management changes
Veteran Hewlett Packard executive Ng Tian Chong will join Singtel to head up the newly combined operating company, comprising the telco’s consumer and enterprise business with effect from June 1, 2023.
He was most recently HP Inc’s Great Asia business’ Senior VP and MD with responsibility for all its go-to-market strategies and overall financial performance.
Ng said he was “thrilled to be joining Singtel, a storied Singapore brand that is very much part of the Singapore growth story”.
Singtel’s Singapore consumer business CEO, Anna Yip, and Singapore enterprise business MD, Lim Seng Kong, will both report to Ng.
Yip will be re-designated as Deputy CEO of the combined entity. In addition, she will assume the new role of CEO, of Business Development and report to Singtel’s Group CEO, Yuen Kuan Moon, in this capacity.
Digital finance
She will drive Singtel’s digital finance portfolio which includes GXS Bank and Dash, accelerate the regional growth of the digital GOMO brand and develop new business-to-business-to-any end-user (B2B2X) ventures that are value accretive to the Group’s core.
Long-time Singtel veteran Bill Chang will relinquish his enterprise business portfolio to helm the new Digital InfraCo with effect from June 1, 2023.
Singtel will also appoint Jorge Fernandes as its Group Chief Technology Officer with effect from June 1, 2023.
Fernandes has spent the bulk of his career as CTO at Vodafone, where he led technology strategy and delivery execution across Vodafone UK, Turkey and Portugal.
He was most recently CTIO with Rogers Communications in Canada. He replaces Mark Chong who was seconded to AIS, Singtel’s Thai regional associate, as its Deputy CEO in December 2022.
Singtel Group CEO Yuen said the consolidation of “our consumer and enterprise units in Singapore are designed to empower our core business to optimise synergies and capabilities to drive growth”.
Unified approach
With a more unified approach, we would be more agile, competitive and compelling when bringing solutions to market, he added.
At the same time, “This will allow us to deliver better outcomes for our customers, whether they are consumers, small businesses or enterprise customers”, Yuen said.
Commenting on the infrastructure arm, Yuen added: “Singtel has a large and unique portfolio of digital infrastructure assets across Asia, which is a key differentiator for the Group… Having invested heavily in these assets through the years, establishing them as a standalone business will allow us to capture new growth as their importance and appeal continue to increase.”
Yuen added these changes were aligned with the “strategic reset we announced two years ago and will reinvigorate our core business in Singapore, thereby enhancing returns for our shareholders”.
