SMRT

[Temperament]

Of course, you cannot blame them when nothing happened but on hindsight...
http://www.smrt.com.sg/Portals/0/PDFs/Ab...010_AR.pdf
Only 1.5 directors have an engineer degree.

Compared with Year 2001...
4 directors have engineering degree.

Engineering company runs by lawyers, chemists, social arts graduates and economists.
????

One should not be judged just due to their respective degrees earned. A degree provides one with other skills besides its area of competency. IF you are to look at other industries (e.g F&B),you may be surprised to see ppl who make ice-cream (whose business is now quite successful) possessing business degress (HR etc).

Looking at politics, you will notice that many of our ministers do not have the degree relevant to their portfoilo. Example: Minister for defence is a cancer specialist

I only agreed to a certain extent. The combination that a particular board is will shape the company policies.
If all of them have not involved in engineering design and development, I cannot see how they can understand the difficulty of doing it properly.

I had attended a biological project briefing before. It's totally out of the world even with years of technical development in engineering world.
Or simply, I did not understand what the hack the presenter was mumbling.
And try to make a decision to invest in the project.....

There is a reason that domain experts must be around to make sensible decisions. There may be lawyers and economists that are truely multipurpose but they probably do not know what is the difference between an AC or DC motor.

Or put it simply, the entire board can be smoked easily.

Yes! That's the point. After the smoking of course with their "super intellect" then they know what is a DC or AC motor.
That's how we have had the "SMRT MISHAP" recently. HA! HA!

[brattzz]

SMRT is just a local co.

so put ex-chief of army to settle... and he MOT's ministar's friend, another ex-chief of navy...

[Underdogger]

The new CEO of SMRT did not even know how to use a MRT card properly lei...

Can someone teach him ?

SMRT is just a local co.

so put ex-chief of army to settle... and he MOT's ministar's friend, another ex-chief of navy...

[AlphaQuant]

the speech from the Desmond Quek during 2Q results on 31Oct was quite interesting, not sure if i am reading too much into this:

"The viability of the Bus business remains challenging and the ongoing government studies and fare formula review, due to be completed in early 2013, will have an impact on the viability of the business"

so...if there are no fare increment, are they going to conclude that the bus biz is not viable and to siphon it off? beg SBS to take the bus biz away from them?

the balance sheets of the books have been deteriorating quite badly with cash burning away (yet needing to pay such a high level of dividends) profit margins have halved from 3 years back. and now, they have an ex-military guy for CEO.

goodness.

[csl123]

the speech from the Desmond Quek during 2Q results on 31Oct was quite interesting, not sure if i am reading too much into this:

"The viability of the Bus business remains challenging and the ongoing government studies and fare formula review, due to be completed in early 2013, will have an impact on the viability of the business"

so...if there are no fare increment, are they going to conclude that the bus biz is not viable and to siphon it off? beg SBS to take the bus biz away from them?

the balance sheets of the books have been deteriorating quite badly with cash burning away (yet needing to pay such a high level of dividends) profit margins have halved from 3 years back. and now, they have an ex-military guy for CEO.

goodness.

The bus business has always been a drag on SMRT's business. SBS Transit's is doing as badly, if not worse. It is a loss making business but SMRT and SBS Transit have to continue, in order to serve the greater good of Singapore. In short, it is not viable in Singapore's business context.

Balance sheet is deteriorating due to the fact that capital expenditure is being brought forward to replace aging fleet of trains and beef up maintenance capability. But this business is a cash cow and the train and advertising business has very good profit margins. Furthermore, it will recover as it is too important to fail, both socially and economically.

An ex-Military personnel might not be a bad idea, as it brings diversity of opinions to board discussion. You have to give him time to make a difference. If he doesn't live up to it, fire him and get a more qualified individual to replace him.

[BlackCat]

The bus business has always been a drag on SMRT's business. SBS Transit's is doing as badly, if not worse.

TIBS was actually profitable before it was bought over by SMRT. From an old 'Shares' booklet: 6.5m loss in 96, 0.7m loss in 97, 5.4m profit in 98, 6.8m profit in 99, and 8.7m 1H00. "A change in depreciation policy for its vehicles was largely responsible for boosting its bottom line" (dosen't say when).

So it was profitable, at least for a while. And SBS made profits every year over that period. I wonder what has changed since then?

[csl123]

The bus business has always been a drag on SMRT's business. SBS Transit's is doing as badly, if not worse.

TIBS was actually profitable before it was bought over by SMRT. From an old 'Shares' booklet: 6.5m loss in 96, 0.7m loss in 97, 5.4m profit in 98, 6.8m profit in 99, and 8.7m 1H00. "A change in depreciation policy for its vehicles was largely responsible for boosting its bottom line" (dosen't say when).

So it was profitable, at least for a while. And SBS made profits every year over that period. I wonder what has changed since then?

Will need to examine the outputs (fare prices, which is tightly controlled) and the inputs (oil prices) of the business.

[sgd]

Even chinese government cannot handle their own people when they go on strike in public how we going to handle. What great idea this is to bring all these people in to drive our buses

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/s...61/1/.html

SINGAPORE: Public transport provider SMRT said that it is in talks with its bus drivers who refused to go to work on Monday.

A spokesman for SMRT said 102 of the bus drivers involved were from China and their service leaders are currently in talks with SMRT management.

SMRT said earlier reports that nearly 200 bus drivers were involved were incorrect.

Channel NewsAsia understands that the bus drivers had stayed away from work as a result of unhappiness over their pay.

SMRT added that the relevant authorities have already been informed about the situation.

[Musicwhiz]

Why only SMRT drivers on strike while SBS Transit was not affected?

Different salary structures?

[AlphaQuant]

we need LKY to step in to "crack heads"