| Type | Public (SGX: F9D) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Engineering |
| Founded | 1828 |
| Headquarters | Singapore |
| Products | Energy-related engineering Water & wastewater engineering Real estate solutions Geo-spatial technology |
| Revenue | SGD 560.6 million (FY2011) |
| Website | Boustead Singapore Limited Homepage |
Boustead Singapore Limited (SGX: F9D) is a global infrastructure-related engineering services and geo-spatial technology group listed on the Singapore Exchange. Headquartered in Singapore, the company’s core businesses are in the development of key infrastructure which supports economic growth in the public and private sectors of emerging markets.
The group’s engineering divisions specialise in energy-related engineering, water & wastewater engineering and real estate solutions. Boustead also has a geo-spatial technology arm which distributes Esri geo-spatial technology to major markets across Australia and South East Asia.
Boustead is listed on the MSCI Global Small Cap Index for Singapore and the FTSE ST Small Cap Index.
Contents |
Edward Boustead, an English businessman, founded Boustead & Co in 1828. The trading company specialised in import and export, offering goods such as banca tin, spices, saps, rattan, medicinal herbs, silk and tea widely available in South East Asia in exchange for Western products like cloth, oil and machinery.
With the development of a wide trading network in Singapore, trade credit and finance became increasingly important to banks, merchants, manufacturers and traders. Boustead & Co, being one of the largest trading houses of the Far East, was the first agent for Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Singapore, offering banking facilities, accepting and discounting bills, giving loans and accepting deposits.
By 1899, Singapore had become the world’s main exporter of tin. Boustead & Co played a leading role as promoter and investor in the tin smelting facility on Pulau Brani, constructed by the Straits Trading Company. From that point onwards, Straits Tin became one of the leading businesses of Boustead & Co.
During the late 1880s, Boustead & Co introduced rubber trees into Malaysia using seeds germinated by Sir Henry Wickham at London’s Botanical Gardens located in Kew. Boustead & Co went on to be a leading rubber plantation manager and owner in Malaysia, acting as secretaries, registrars and agents for 49 plantations with a total planted area of 141,629 acres (573 km2).
The company played a pioneering role in the development of commodity markets for tin, oil, rubber and palm oil, among other commodities. All of these commodities played important roles in global development and industrialisation.
In 1892, Boustead handled the first shipment of bulk oil to Penang. Shortly after, the Shell Trading and Transport Company was formed. Isaac Henderson, a Boustead partner was one of the founding directors of the new company, now known simply as Shell. Boustead & Co represented Shell in its products including kerosene, motor spirit and fuel oil for shipping in Singapore and Penang, along with fabricating many installations for Shell’s facility on Pulau Bukom.
By the 1960s, Boustead & Co entered the shipping and insurance business, to capture trading opportunities arising from the opening of the Suez Canal.
The company’s shipping division was the largest in Singapore, with 1,000 vessels in port which represented 60 owners and handled 500,000 tonnes per year. Boustead represented over 20 major shipping lines and numerous insurance agencies including the renowned Lloyd’s, which Boustead represented for more than one century [1].
Later on, the company diversified into businesses such as estate management, marketing and mining. The marketing division was the brand agent responsible for introducing some of the world’s greatest brands to Singapore and the region. Boustead built a reputation as one of the most sought-after managing agencies of the Far East, and distributed and marketed brands such as Baileys, Bacardi, Cadbury’s, Del Monte, Dornbracht, Dow Consumer Products, Dupont Corian, Gillette, Hennessy, Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical, Jacobs Manufacturing, Jim Beam, Jockey, Johnnie Walker, Kao, Lloyd’s, Maidenform, Martini & Rossi, Moet & Chandon, Nestle, Nissan, Ovaltine, Pedigree, Poggenpohl, Procter & Gamble, Sandvik, Shell, Slazenger, Smirnoff, Speedo, Suzuki, Thomas Cook, Trebor and Villeroy & Boch.
Due to major political changes in Malaya and Singapore, the period of 1957 to 1965 saw Boustead & Co divided into three separate companies in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Malaysia. Each company carried the same name and was listed on their respective stock exchanges. Boustead Singapore Limited was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange on 17 October 1975.
After the split, Boustead Singapore lost control of most of the assets and properties, which by default went to Malaysia due to their geographical presence. However, Boustead Singapore’s trading arm held many contracts for the marketing and distribution of consumer goods, while the engineering division sought out new markets for its design and project management services. The company was able to grow its business, under the leadership of Boustead executives who had been with the company for a long time. The nature of the company's businesses in Singapore also began to change, with activities focused mainly on manufacturing and technical services.
In 1996, Chiew Yuen Fong bought over Boustead Singapore, with the company centering its core operations on infrastructure-related engineering services and geo-spatial technology [2].
In 2010, the company recorded a tenth consecutive year of record-breaking revenue and net profit since its listing in 1975.
Over two consecutive years in 2008 and 2009, Boustead was recognised in the prestigious Forbes Asia 200 Best Under A Billion as one of the Asia Pacific’s 200 best public-listed corporations under US$1 billion in revenue [3].
Boustead received the Most Transparent Company Award (Runner-Up) in the Construction Category at the SIAS (Securities Investors Association of Singapore) Investors’ Choice Awards 2009 and 2010[4].
The group’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chiew Yuen Fong was awarded the Chief Executive Officer of the Year 2008 (market capitalisation of S$300 million to less than S$1 billion) at the Singapore Corporate Awards 2009 [5].
Boustead was featured in the inaugural edition of Business Superbrands Singapore 2010, which pays tribute to the strongest and most valuable business-to-business brands in Singapore [6].
In 2008, Boustead Singapore held its 180th Anniversary in a year marked with a gala dinner attended by 800 guests, and which was honoured by the presence of Singapore’s Senior Minister, Goh Chok Tong as Guest-of-Honour. In addition, a specially-commissioned 138-page anniversary book, Boustead 1828 was launched, along with a 10-minute corporate film that was shot across three continents, and a 28-page newspaper insert and 12-page supplementary in The Straits Times and The Business Times respectively.
Boustead’s business divisions by category:
Boustead International Heaters designs, engineers and supplies process heater systems and waste heat recovery units to the downstream oil & gas industries. Process heater systems are critical to the distillation and separation of crude oil and natural gas into the many petroleum products (e.g. asphalt, heavy bunker oil, diesel fuel, gasoline, kerosene, LPG, LNG, GTL that the world uses today. Boustead has participated in projects related to Shell's Scotford Upgrader, the Canadian Oil Sands and the Pearl GTL project in Qatar.
Boustead Controls & Electrics designs, engineers and supplies process control systems and emergency/safety shutdown systems on oil & gas well platforms, production platforms and FPSOs.
Boustead Maxitherm Energy designs, engineers and constructs solid waste energy recovery plants. The solid waste energy recovery plants are essentially mini-power plants of up to 20MW in capacity, which convert biomass, agro-industrial waste (e.g. oil palm kernels, rice husks, sugar bagasse, wood waste chips) and municipal waste into electricity.
Boustead Salcon Water Solutions designs, engineers and constructs water and wastewater treatment plants for industrial and municipal applications. Its industrial water and wastewater treatment plants (e.g. desalination, demineralisation, deionisation) are utilised to produce pure or ultra-pure water for process use and treat hazardous wastewater for safe discharge at power plants, oil refineries, gas processing plants, petrochemical plants, manufacturing plants, breweries and other process plants.
The subsidiary carried out the Phase II Extension for the Bedok NEWater Factory for the Public Utilities Board.
Boustead Projects designs, builds and develops industrial facilities (e.g. logistics, manufacturing, office, R&D) and industrial parks for multinational corporations in industries ranging from aviation, biomedical, high-tech manufacturing to lifestyle and logistics, among others.
Boustead Projects has played a key role in building numerous industrial facilities within JTC Corporation’s industrial parks including the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore and the knowledge-driven Paya Lebar iPark.
Boustead is a major shareholder of subsidiaries Esri Australia and Esri South Asia. Esri Inc has a global market share of 40%, with over 300,000 organisations utilising Esri GIS solutions in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Geo-spatial technology applications include the management of homeland defence (e.g. anti-terrorism, police), natural resources (e.g. mining, oil & gas, timber), transportation networks (e.g. airports, ports, roads) and utility networks (e.g. power grids, water and sewage systems), among others.