SPEECH BY MR DAVID GERALD, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT & CEO OF SIAS AT THE SIAS INVESTORS’ CHOICE AWARDS & MEMBERS’ NIGHT 2025 on 11 November 2025 AT 7PM

Date: November 11, 2025

Guest of Honour, Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Gan Kim Yong,

Mdm Halimah Yacob, Chancellor, SUSS, Chief Patron of SIAS,

Chairman, SIAS, Mr Daniel Teo, Patron, Mr Sherman Kwek,

Distinguished Honorary Member of SIAS, Mr Liew Mun Leong,

Distinguished guests, SIAS members, ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening and a warm welcome to all of you and especially to our Guest-of-Honour, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong for gracing tonight’s event, taking time off his very busy schedule. Thank you, sir!

Our celebration tonight differs from those of previous years because this year, we are incorporating Members’ Night with the Awards ceremony. The number of awards to be presented tonight will also be considerably reduced. There is also only one speech, kindly bear with me.

This year, Singapore celebrates its 60th birthday whilst SIAS celebrates 26 years of protecting, educating and empowering retail investors. The reason for our origins is well documented and well known.

Suffice to say that 26 years ago, SIAS was born, not as a club for the privileged few, but as the strong voice for the investing public especially the small investors in crisis.

Since then, SIAS has stayed true to that founding purpose. We have been a steadfast advocate for good corporate governance, transparency, accountability and protection – principles that form the foundation of trust in all capital markets.

Through countless engagements with listed companies, regulators and shareholders, I would like to think that SIAS is now widely accepted as a key part of the local capital market landscape.

According to the latest research data collated by Centre for Governance and Sustainability (CGS) at NUS Business School for our awards, the average Singapore Corporate Governance scores have maintained an upward trend, reaching 65.6% in 2025 over the five-year period since 2021. This is indeed encouraging.

Furthermore, the gains were across the board, with small, medium and big companies all raising their governance standards.

Out of the total 37 winning listed companies tonight, we are also encouraged that 11 are in the Straits Times Index while 11 are in the 50 components of the iEdge Next 50 index.

Shareholder advocacy, for which we are popularly known, is only one part of our mission, another being investor education – and here too our record speaks for itself. From the year 2000 when we launched our first investing seminar, SIAS has now reached over 400,000 investors through 2200 seminars, webinars, workshops and outreach programmes, most of which are free.

We have simplified financial literacy, demystified investing and helped Singaporeans gain confidence in their ability to manage their financial future. We do this because we firmly believe that informed investors form the bedrock of a resilient financial market.

On beyond “green” and “sustainability”, we must focus on “Nature and Biodiversity,” which are the holistic foundation for all sustainability efforts. Companies that integrate these principles will strengthen long-term value creation, in turn, the share price will appreciate as markets will recognize their responsible action. Retail investors will directly benefit from this value growth. This is not only good for business, but it is our fiduciary duty to the planet. Together, we create value for investors and safeguard the globe.

It is worth noting at this juncture that another key component of an advanced, resilient financial market is proper investor recourse, something for which SIAS has been campaigning for several years now. Our vision was for an independent tribunal.

I am heartened to note that the Monetary Authority of Singapore has now announced in its second phase of its Equity Market Development Programme or EQDP in July, that it would consult on proposals to enhance investors’ ability to seek recourse for losses suffered from market misconduct.

According to MAS, these proposals are expected to focus on facilitating civil recourse, enhancing the ability of retail investors to initiate civil actions, addressing difficulties such as high legal costs and organizing large groups of affected investors.

When such an initiative takes full flight, it would represent a major improvement as far as retail investors are able to take class action. For too long, small investors have had to endure what SIAS terms “the tyranny of the majority’’, which is basically having to endure corporate actions designed to benefit the few to the detriment of the many. SIAS will only resort to legal action if all else fails.

As I’m sure you will all agree, telling investors who have lost heavily through fraud or accounting irregularities that this is a “caveat emptor’’ or “buyer beware’’ market would ring very hollow. Perhaps, I should warn errant corporates that it will be “corporates beware” as class action may be next! However, I have to say that all the majority of our corporate leaders, especially the ones present tonight, are honourable and act with integrity and so, I expect any such actions to be few and far between. SIAS will be seeking feedback from our investing community on the investor recourse consult paper and we welcome investors to speak to us.

Since 1999, SIAS has been giving a voice to the downtrodden majority though our approach “in the boardroom and not the courtroom’’ where we aim to work in a tripartite arrangement, with listed companies and regulators to resolve contentious corporate issues.

However, despite the pivotal role that SIAS has played in advancing minority interests for more than a quarter of a century, SIAS is not without its critics who seek to cast doubt on our efforts, claiming that independence is lacking because we work with companies instead of against them.

All I can do is point to some of the tangible benefits that SIAS has brought to the investors versus nothing the critics have achieved.

For example, shareholders under the CPF Investment Scheme are now able to attend annual general meetings, share options are now expensed at our recommendation, thus giving a better picture of a company’s bottom line, companies that are profitable but do not pay dividends have to give reasons to shareholders for not paying and companies seeking to delist through lowball privatization offers are now wary of SIAS’s likely intervention when the offer is not fair and reasonable.

On the subject of privatizations and delistings, I am happy to note that due to challenges mounted by SIAS, when offers were considered too low, shareholders of several companies including Tiger Air, Boustead Projects, Lian Beng and Sinarmas Land, and others received offer prices that were significantly higher than when the offers were first launched.

SIAS has been questioning boards and senior management of about 250 companies on their financial performance, corporate strategy and corporate governance practices. About 80% of the companies questioned responded.

I make no apologies for SIAS’s “in the boardroom, not the courtroom’’ approach which rests on a tripartite strategy involving SIAS, listed companies and regulators to discuss rationally how best to resolve contentious issues all for the betterment of our investing community. This will continue as the preferred first approach.

It is a proven strategy that the Government has employed in resolving industrial disputes and has served the country well throughout the past 60 years since independence. To advocate otherwise would, in SIAS’s view, would not be in the interest of investors. We will continue with what has proven to be effective in resolving shareholder disputes.

Before I close, I would like to address a question that I have been asked many times in recent years – leadership succession in SIAS, or specifically, who is to take over from me.

But my time helming SIAS must, quite naturally, come to an end sooner or later, and I think it will have to be sooner rather than later, even though I always tell people that the man responsible for the Clob crisis, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is still around at the age of 100, so why not myself?

At the Annual General meeting held three weeks ago, for the first time, seven younger professional men and women have come forward to offer their services to the small investors. The management committee has now been refreshed and rejuvenated. And leadership succession has been finalized. Rest assured, an announcement will be made at an appropriate time. A great man once said, “Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave, if I feel that something is going wrong, I will get up!” If anything goes wrong with SIAS, I, too, will do the same!

I would like to express our deepest appreciation to DPM Gan and to all who have been a part of the SIAS story for the last 26 years – our volunteers, supporters, the regulators who have worked closely with us, listed company boards and senior managements, media, and above all, our members.

Without all your support, SIAS would not have become the voice that matters – a voice that speaks with conviction, acts with integrity and serves with purpose.

As we celebrate 26 years of shareholder advocacy, led us renew our shared pledge to protect investors, to uphold good governance and to ensure that Singapore’s markets remain strong, fair and transparent for generations to come.

On behalf of SIAS, I thank all corporate governance week sponsors, investors’ choice awards sponsors, sponsors for tonight’s lucky draw and goodie bags, the pledgees supporting good corporate governance, award winners for sponsoring tables, our staff for their hard work to make this event a success.

Thank you. Enjoy the evening!