Amos Group's CFO named CEO after Perry Kennedy quits

MAINBOARD-LISTED Amos Group's chief financial officer (CFO) Dan Tan Song Boon is succeeding Perry Kennedy as chief executive officer (CEO), effective immediately.

The company, which provides rigging and lifting products and specialised engineering services to the offshore and marine sector, announced Mr Tan's appointment and Mr Kennedy's resignation on Thursday morning.

Mr Tan, 45, will continue to be based at the firm's headquarters in Singapore.

He will relinquish his duties as CFO, and the company's senior finance team will be responsible for all finance-related matters until a new CFO is appointed.

Mr Tan joined Amos International Holdings (AIH) as CFO in April 2017, before AIH was acquired by Amos Group last October. He was subsequently appointed as CFO of the group in November.

Mr Tan has over 20 years of financial and business management experience in the maritime industry. He began his career in 1997 with port operator PSA International, where he assumed various senior roles in general management, finance, accounting and project management.

Kyle Shaw, executive chairman of the group, said that Mr Tan is the "natural successor" for the CEO role. "I am confident that Dan has the management skills, industry experience and intricate customer knowledge to continue to lead Amos into the future," Mr Shaw said.

Meanwhile, Mr Kennedy, 57, quit on Thursday to "pursue other opportunities", slightly more than a year after he joined Amos Group as CEO last April, the company said.

Mr Kennedy led the expansion of the business including the acquisition of AIH, integrating the businesses and their subsidiaries into a unified group with a stronger capital structure and expanded customer base.

During this time, Amos Group made good progress reducing its total inventories, rightsizing its Singapore properties, and reducing debt, it said on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Mr Kennedy told The Business Times in an interview that the company had been "actively cleaning up the business".

On Thursday, Amos Group said it is investing in a new ERP (enterprise resource planning) digital platform and has been strengthening its global customer network and driving a campaign of facility modernisation, certification, efficiency improvements, and capability enhancements across its 12 international locations.

Amos Group operates production, logistics and fulfilment centres in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, including in Singapore. This year, the group also opened a facility in Hong Kong and is expanding its existing Johor, Malaysia facility for production and related services.

Its shares ended flat at 2.8 Singapore cents on Wednesday.