SingTel named most-governed and transparent for 4th straight year

SingTel scored 111 points overall in the 2012 Governance and Transparency Index, beating SGX and DBS.

The telecommunications company was named Singapore's most well-governed and transparent company for the fourth consecutive year. In second place was Singapore Exchange with 105 points, while DBS Group Holdings came in third with 94 points. Keppel Corp and Sembcorp Industries were tied in fourth position with 93 points.

This marks the first time that DBS and Sembcorp Industries have been in the top five since the GTI was launched in 2009, with both firms seeing significant improvements in their overall scores. The index assesses companies based on their corporate governance disclosure and practices, as well as the timeliness, accessibility and transparency of their financial results announcements.

Also, the mean score of GTI increased to 34.9 from 31.5 in 2011. It is also the highest since the GTI was launched, suggesting improving standards of corporate governance and disclosure practices in Singapore.

Associate Professor Lawrence Loh, researcher with CGIO of NUS Business School, said, “The overall results this year have been very encouraging. For the past three years, the average GTI score had somewhat declined steadily year on year. However, this year's average score is higher than that in any of the previous years. It appears that we have turned the corner in the standard of corporate governance in Singapore. This augurs well 2 especially since corporate governance is increasingly emphasised and companies do take compliance to governance guidelines more seriously.”

The study is the result of a tripartite collaboration between NUS Business School‟s Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations, CPA Australia and The Business Times. The study is also supported by the Investment Management Association of Singapore.

GTI 2012 ranked a total of 674 SGX-listed companies which released their annual reports in 2011. Exceptions were made for firms with September financial year-ends, where the cut-off for inclusion in the index was extended to 31 January 2012.