Winning an award is a great reason to celebrate.
For investors, awards act as a good filter for finding outstanding companies that may end up on their buy watchlist.
Previously, we covered several winners of the Singapore Corporate Awards.
This month, the Securities Investors Association of Singapore, or SIAS, held its annual Investors Choice Awards (ICA).
The ICA recognises companies and individuals that practice and adopt good corporate governance.
Corporate governance covers timely and appropriate disclosures from listed companies that help investors to make informed decisions on their investments.
Last year’s winners for the ICA include Singtel (SGX: Z74), OCBC Ltd (SGX: O39), CapitaLand Ascendas REIT (SGX: A17U), and Venture Corporation Limited (SGX: V03).
Here are five Singapore blue-chip winners of 2022’s ICA.
Keppel Corporation Limited (SGX: BN4)
Keppel Corporation Limited is a conglomerate with four major divisions – energy and environment, urban development, connectivity, and asset management.
Keppel was the winner of the Singapore Corporate Governance Award in the “big-cap” category.
The group reported a strong 66% year on year jump in net profit to S$498 million for its 2022’s first-half (1H2022) earnings.
It also paid out an interim dividend of S$0.15, 25% higher than the prior year’s S$0.12.
Keppel recently announced that it had clinched a tender for a newbuild floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel worth US$2.8 billion from Petrobras in Brazil.
With this contract, the group’s order book was boosted to S$11.8 billion as of 28 September.
The conglomerate is also waiting for the approval of its merger with Sembcorp Marine Limited (SGX: S51) which was announced six months ago.
Sembcorp Industries Ltd (SGX: U96)
Sembcorp Industries Ltd, or SCI, is an energy and urban solutions provider with a balanced energy portfolio of 16.6 gigawatts (GW) along with a project portfolio of 13,000 hectares in sustainable urban development.
SCI took the top spot for the “Shareholder Communications Excellence Award”.
The group has done well this year, reporting a 45% year on year jump in revenue to S$4.76 billion for 1H2022.
Net profit before exceptional items nearly doubled year on year to S$490 million.
SCI doubled its interim dividend from S$0.02 to S$0.04 in tandem with strong results.
The group had just announced its intention to sell off its Indian energy division for S$2.06 billion and plans to accelerate its portfolio transformation from “brown” to “green”.
DBS Group (SGX: D05)
Singapore’s largest bank saw its CEO, Piyush Gupta, being awarded the Investors’ Choice Outstanding CEO Award.
The lender’s business has remained resilient throughout the pandemic, and it earned S$6.8 billion in net profit for fiscal 2021 (FY2021).
For 1H2022, DBS continued to do well, reporting its second-highest net profit on record of S$3.6 billion.
The bank not only launched a digital exchange back in 2020 but also pulled off the acquisition of Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) Taiwan consumer banking division earlier this year for S$2.2 billion.
Rising interest rates will also act as a tailwind that can raise DBS’ net interest income in the coming quarters.
CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (SGX: C38U)
CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, or CICT, is a retail and commercial REIT with 21 properties in Singapore, two in Germany, and three in Australia.
Assets under management stood at S$24.2 billion as of 31 December 2021.
CICT was the winner of the Singapore Corporate Governance Award in the “REITs and Business Trusts” category.
The REIT saw its distribution per unit (DPU) rise from S$0.0518 to S$0.0522 for 1H2022.
Portfolio committed occupancy stood at 93.8% as of 30 June 2022.
CICT plans to transform CQ @ Clarke Quay into a day-and-night destination with asset enhancement initiatives totalling S$62 million.
Singapore Airlines Limited (SGX: C6L)
Singapore Airlines Limited, or SIA, is Singapore’s flagship carrier.
The group was the runner-up for the Singapore Corporate Governance Award under the “Diversity” category.
With borders reopening and air travel resuming, SIA saw passenger numbers soar in recent months.
August saw the number of passengers surpass two million, up 13-fold from the 155,400 registered in the same month last year.
For its fiscal 2023’s first quarter, the airline also reported its second-highest operating profit on record.
As of 30 June, the group’s passenger network covered 98 destinations in 36 countries and territories, around 71% of its pre-COVID number of destinations.
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Disclaimer: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
