Singtel CEO’s pay falls 17% to S$6.8 million in FY2026 on Optus incident and Singapore outages

[SINGAPORE] Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon had his pay slashed 16.9 per cent to S$6.8 million for FY2026, owing to the triple zero incident at its Australian unit Optus and Singapore network outages.

His compensation for FY2025 stood at S$8.2 million.

“In assessing the performance for the year ending Mar 31, 2026, and determining the appropriate remuneration outcome for the group CEO, the Board took into account the Optus Triple Zero incident and the Singtel Singapore network outages during the year,” Singtel said in its annual report released on Tuesday (Jun 30).

The remuneration of other key executives, excluding the CEO, also fell 11.9 per cent to S$25.9 million, for the same reasons.

In September last year, an Optus outage following a network upgrade resulted in Triple Zero calls – the emergency number used for life-threatening situations and emergencies – being blocked. This led to two deaths, a review noted.

Separately, Singtel’s Singapore users were affected by multiple network outages in March. The largest outage on Mar 16 resulted in users not having access for more than six hours.

“In response (to the Triple Zero incident and Singapore outages), the Group remains focused on restoring customer trust, enhancing service reliability, and strengthening operational resilience across its businesses,” it added.

Cuts despite strong financial showing

The cuts in remuneration come even though the telco has seen a strong financial showing in FY2026.

The group’s net profit rose 39.5 per cent to S$5.6 billion, from S$4 billion in 2025. This was boosted by S$2.84 billion in net exceptional gains, mainly from Airtel stake sales, and partly offset by various provisions largely from Australia.

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Underlying net profit for the telco rose 12 per cent to S$2.8 billion, compared to the previous year.

The group’s asset recycling strategy, Singtel28, recently hit S$6.8 billion against its S$9 billion mid-term recycling target, following its sale of S$1 billion of shares in Thai energy developer Gulf Development.

Shares of Singtel fell 0.2 per cent or S$0.1 at S$4.43, as at 10.20 am on Tuesday.