Engie moves Asia-Pacific headquarters from Thailand to Singapore

Singapore

FRENCH energy company Engie announced on Monday that it will move its Asia-Pacific headquarters from Thailand to Singapore, in a bid to focus on supporting regional governments and businesses in sustainable growth opportunities.

Expected to be fully operational by mid-2019, the new headquarters will be located at Golden-Agri Plaza along Pasir Panjang Road, together with Engie's other business units; these include Engie Services, Engie Factory, Engie Lab and Engie Axima.

Engie's new headquarters will grow its workforce to "further establish the city state as the authority in clean-energy management in the region".

Chief executive of Engie Asia-Pacific Paul Maguire said Singapore was a natural choice for Engie, as many of its clients are also based here.

He added that Singapore's vision of being a Smart Nation and its leadership in innovation and sustainability provides an ideal platform to build and scale its innovations.

Lee Eng Keat, executive director of commercial and professional services at EDB, said: "Singapore has been playing an active role in the transformation of the global energy sector.

"Engie's latest investment will catalyse the development of innovative solutions for the region's growing demand for smart and sustainable energy."

The move follows Engie's S$80 million investment last year, when it launched its Centre of Expertise in Singapore to tackle energy efficiency and district cooling.

It had previously established Engie Lab, a regional energy innovation and technology hub, and launched a multi-fluid renewable energy microgrid on Semakau Island.

The Asia-Pacific currently contributes US$3 billion in revenue to the energy giant, which, according to its website, pulled in US$74 billion in global revenue for FY2017.

Engie Asia-Pacific has also contributed to the company's global strategy through the sale and closure of assets in Australia and Indonesia.

The company will now look to grow its footprint in the region with new sustainable, energy-efficiency solutions. These include solar, geothermal, wind, biomass, gas and decentralised generation.

Engie now has 4,000 employees in the region, and plans to double the number in the next decade. Globally, it has 150,000 employees in 70 countries.

Amendment Note: The story above has been updated to reflect that the sale and closure of Engie's assets in Australia and Indonesia contributes to their global strategy, and not their revenues as previously reported.