It was reported that on Wednesday (4 Mar), SingPost Chief Executive Paul Coutts announced that SingPost too will cut salaries and freeze pay for its senior management in light of the current coronavirus outbreak. Starting April, senior vice-presidents and above will have their pay reduced by 5 per cent, said Coutts.

His announcement came after government and other Temasek-linked companies have taken the lead in cutting salaries of their top leaders and management in light of the outbreak. SingPost would do likewise “amid this uncertain and challenging environment in a show of solidarity”, he said.

According to the latest SingPost annual report, Coutts was paid $1,835,000 last year including bonuses. His fixed pay was $1 million and his total package was $2,068,000, which did not include any shares or share options.

SingPost hires Paul Coutts to replace Wolfgang Baier

After the previous CEO Wolfgang Baier, an Austrian, abruptly resigned due to “personal reasons” and left SingPost in mid-2016, SingPost’s CEO position was vacant for about a year.

Under Baier, two US e-commerce companies Jagged Peak and TradeGlobal were acquired by SingPost. Last year, the 2 loss-making companies underwent bankruptcy proceeding in the US and were later sold off causing SingPost to incur high losses.

On 1 Jun 2017, SingPost appointed Paul Coutts as the new CEO. SingPost said Coutts has more than 20 years of experience in “C-suite positions at major global logistics and postal companies”. He is said to have attended several business executive programmes at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and London Business School.

SingPost’s share price continues to slide following Coutts’ appointment

However, since Coutts came on board, SingPost’s share price has been sliding downwards. Its share price was $1.24 on 2 Jun 2017 at the time he joined SingPost. By the beginning of this year, SingPost’s share price had already gone below $1 at $0.94 (3 Jan), losing close to 25%. This was before the outbreak of coronavirus.

With the news of the outbreak hitting Singapore around end Jan, SingPost’s share price has since dived further going below $0.80, losing another some 20%.

And according to data from Yahoo Finance, SingPost’s annual operating income has also been sliding downwards in the last 2-3 years (TTM refers to Trailing Twelve Months).

It’s not known how his business knowledge gained from those executive programmes he attended at the Wharton School, Stanford Graduate School and London Business School would help him revive the fortunes of SingPost.

 

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