Date: September 17, 2024
Guest-of-Honour, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam,
Special Guest ESM Goh Chok Tong,
Mr Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director of MAS,
Mr Daniel Teo, Chairman SIAS,
Mr Sherman Kwek, Patron SIAS,
Mr JY Pillay & Mr Lim Chee Onn, distinguished honorary members of SIAS,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I wish you all happy mid-autumn festival!
25 years ago, in 1999, SIAS was born out of strife, turmoil and necessity at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis. Our investments were threatened – about SGD$7 billion worth of frozen CLOB shares – largely held by Singaporean retail investors. Instead of being cowed, we stood together and charted a solution. SIAS was thus born!
There is a popular ancient Chinese proverb that says:
失败是成功之母
shī bài shì chéng gōng zhī mǔ
Failure is the Mother of Success!
Against all odds, we stood together, united by a common mission.
Today, 25 years later, SIAS is recognised as a strong and credible voice for investors; acknowledged as a key player in our capital market for advancing the interests of all investors.
Our history has been characterised by 3Rs:
- Recovery,
- Restoration and
- Rebuilding!
What have we then achieved?
Following our successful negotiations with the Malaysian authorities, SIAS was able to recover the SGD$7 billion worth of “lost” CLOB shares and restore their investments to some 172,000 Singapore retail investors. That Recovery and Restoration were well recorded.
SIAS then moved on to the next value-add phase: Rebuilding and laying foundation for a stronger and more enlightened investing universe, especially retail investors.
Our first key focus was Investor Education.
To give our retail investors proper investing guidance, instead of relying on tips, speculation and rumours, SIAS embarked on investor education. Our objective was to formulate a broad-based, systematic approach to enlightened investing with knowledge and information.
SIAS’s first investor education programme in March 2000 attracted 1,000 retail investors. In July that year, our then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke at our first anniversary dinner and said SIAS’ investor education initiatives played a significant role in a deregulated market ruled by the maxim “caveat emptor’’ or “buyer beware’’ because deregulation brought with it a wide range of investment opportunities which, in turn, meant that it was important for investors to be equipped with the proper knowledge to be able to evaluate the merits of these products.
Mr JY Pillay, then-chairman of The Singapore Exchange, in his message in SIAS’s inaugural newsletter for April-June 2000 said that investors had also to learn that no matter how much knowledge they had, they still had to contend with the vagaries of economies and the stock market.
Since 2000, SIAS has conducted 4,500 investor education programmes, benefiting about 350,000 investors. An entire two generations of citizens have benefited from our programmes.
Investor Rights is another initiative which today has become another strong pillar for SIAS.
The frustration of minority shareholders not being heard at general meetings and by being beaten by majority votes prompted us to consider a new approach to resolving issues to achieve a win-win result for them. This is when SIAS decided to apply the successful Government tripartite approach. SIAS introduced the culture of resolving issues in the boardroom and not the courtroom.
Rather than threaten legal action or resort to fist-thumping belligerence, SIAS has always advocated reasoned moderation, negotiation or mediation and discussion. You will appreciate that this approach has yielded positive results in Singapore. We cannot afford a combative and disruptive capital market. SIAS prefers to resolve disputes responsibly, with reasonableness.
Over the years, SIAS had successfully moderated many corporate disputes amongst different stakeholders. More recently, SIAS’ intervention in several privatisation-cum-delisting exercises has successfully led to upward revisions in offer prices that could originally be described as “lowball’’ or not “fair and reasonable” in legal parlance.
It is a well-established practice in Asian culture to meet face to face over a cup of tea or a meal to resolve issues with respect. (save face la) This approach quickly won favour with both companies and investors because issues can be resolved amicably with win-win solutions. You can read more about some of the high-profile cases in SIAS’ 25th anniversary book that is being launched tonight.
As a result of our success of resolving issues in the boardroom and not the courtroom, substantial shareholders of companies launching corporate actions are now regularly approaching SIAS to help facilitate engaging shareholders and investors at dialogue sessions on our platform. This demonstrates openness and transparency as well as encourages dialogue and better communication. This firmly established culture must continue in the interest of Singapore. You are better with us than without us!
To improve transparency and engagement, SIAS started another initiative: Ask 3 Questions of Published Annual Reports.
This initiative sees SIAS sending questions on three areas – corporate strategy, financial results and corporate governance – to hundreds of companies ahead of their annual general meetings, aimed at raising awareness among shareholders of issues and red flags. We are heartened that about 74% of listed companies had responded to SIAS’ 3 questions.
SIAS also contributed to raise the Bar in Corporate Governance.
Our dinner tonight is part of SIAS’ Annual Corporate Governance Week, instituted 15 years ago, since 2010. The Corporate Governance pledges by corporate chiefs in the media attest to increasing commitment by various stakeholder groups to raising the bar in corporate governance.
Later tonight, SIAS will honour companies and individuals for being the best in class in their respective segments.
Advocacy and Bridge over Troubled Waters is another of SIAS’s key initiatives.
In 25 years, I would like to believe that SIAS has become an integral player – a respected advocate – in the local capital market, providing a credible bridge between shareholders, companies, and regulators, bridging what could have become troubled waters.
Through many such initiatives, SIAS has become an important lynchpin in the financial market ecosystem, ensuring the integrity and robustness of our capital market, especially from the perspective of capital providers, i.e. shareholders and investors.
Today SIAS is a Charity, an institution of public character that counts distinguished persons like Singapore’s ex-Presidents Dr Tony Tan and Madam Halimah Yacob as our immediate past and present Chief Patrons; and well-regarded corporate personalities such as Dr Stephen Riady and Mr Sherman Kwek as our Patrons and Mr Daniel Teo as our Chairman.
We are also very privileged to have Mr JY Pillay, Mr Lim Chee Onn, Mr Liew Mun Leong, Mr Hsieh Fu Hua and Mr Tan Pheng Hock as our distinguished Honorary Members.
I must also acknowledge the unwavering support and commitment of a number of public-spirited individuals who voluntarily came forward and stayed the course over the last 25 years to help build SIAS to what it is today. They are Christopher Cheong, Andrew Cheng, Elaine Lim, Richard Dyason, Vincent Chen, Ang Hao Yao, Uantchern Loh, Christopher Tan, Robson Lee, Ng Siew Quan, Melvin Yong, TK Yap, Tay Woon Teck and Terence Wong. I’m sorry if I missed out anyone else, who deserved to be mentioned here.
15 years ago, we started the SIAS Youth Chapter comprising university investment club students to help them on investor education and navigate the complex financial markets. Today, many of them have continued their interest in the financial services sector. Some of them are with us tonight. Thank you for joining us.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our regulators who have supported SIAS through its evolution over the past 25 years. Special thanks are due to the MAS, SGX and SGX RegCo for their unwavering support in all SIAS’ initiatives and for valuing SIAS’s participation in drafting the various Codes of Corporate Governance and Listing Rules.
I must also acknowledge with sincere gratitude the following SIAS’ shareholder associate membership corporate sponsors, companies and individual doners and supporters who continue with their unstinting support for our mission.
So, this is where we are today. Born out of turmoil with the driving need to protect our investing interests and to have a voice in the capital market, it had taken 25 years of hard work and passion to get here, and the results speak for themselves.
More importantly of course, is what’s in store for the next 25 years?
We will continue with our mission to educate and inform retail investors, advance investor rights and promote good corporate governance practices.
More significantly, SIAS will move on to our 4th R, adding Rejuvenation to Recovery, Restoration and Rebuilding.
Rejuvenation is centred on building liquidity in the capital market. To this end, SIAS will be launching soon “Invest Singapore”. This initiative aims to reach the masses to invest in our Singapore markets. We plan to equip more people to invest with knowledge, especially first-time investors. Through this programme, we hope to increase the universe of investors and enlarge the AUM in the Singapore capital market. This will be our commitment to reviving the Singapore’s equities markets.
I must now conclude and not stand between you and your dinner.
Thank you, bon appetit and have a good evening!
