Temasek's Ho Ching, Singtel's Chua Sock Koong among 50 most powerful women outside of US

SINGAPORE Telecommunications (Singtel) Group CEO Chua Sock Koong and Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching are featured among Fortune magazine's 50 most powerful women based outside of the United States this year.

Ms Chua is ranked 4th, while Ms Ho is ranked 8th on the list.

Over the past 10 years, Ms Chua has grown Singtel into South-east Asia's largest telecommunications company, boasting US$51 billion in market capitalisation, and earnings of US$2.8 billion last year, with 70 per cent of it coming from overseas operations.

Calling Ms Chua an "astute technocrat", Fortune noted that Singtel has also made sizeable investments in cybersecurity and it is paying off: ICT (information communication and technology) revenue was up 18 per cent in the first quarter of fiscal 2017, offsetting declines in the telecom's consumer division, thanks to the September 2015 acquisition of US-based Trustwave for US$810 million.

Ms Ho, who is married to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, helms the influential sovereign wealth fund where she has served as executive director since 2002.

Under her leadership, the firm's US$180 billion portfolio has broadened beyond Asia and posted an annual shareholder return of 6 per cent over the past decade.