Keppel kicked out of top spot as Singapore’s best-governed firm

It was dethroned by SingTel.

The country’s largest telco managed to claw its way back as the city-state's most well-governed and transparent company after playing bridesmaid to Keppel Corporation last year.

The National University of Singapore’s annual Governance and Transparency Index showed that SingTel bested its peers with an overall score of 118 points, a three-point leap from last year's 115.

Keppel fell to third place after bagging the top spot last year, while Singapore Exchange rose to the second spot from after clinching the fourth place in 2014.

NUS declared that SingTel fared well in overall corporate governance measures. It lauded the telco’s efforts to engage professional consulting firms to independently evaluate remuneration packages for its directors and key management, as well as disclose the detailed policy on payment of dividends.

CapitaLand and DBS Group shared fourth place with 111 points each.

“Standards of corporate governance among Singapore-listed companies have reached an all-time high since the GTI was conceived – a fine tribute to how companies have strived to improve their governance and transparency practices. While there is always room to be better, the performance so far is a significant step in the right direction on this journey,” said Melvin Yong, Singapore Country Head at CPA Australia.