Singtel chairman seeks fee cut; company brings forward net-zero target by 5 years

SINGTEL chairman Lee Theng Kiat has requested to receive S$960,000 in chairman’s fees in FY2023, instead of the all-in fee of S$1.15 million.

As part of the telco’s FY2023 annual report, which was released on Tuesday (Jun 27), the company noted that the chairman received car-related benefits of S$15,908 for FY2023 as well.

Throughout FY2023, Lee missed one out of four corporate governance and nominations committee meetings held and both Optus advisory committee meetings held.

Separately, Singtel said in its sustainability report that it would bring forward its net-zero goal to 2045, from 2050.

This would be achieved by reducing energy use, improving energy efficiency and increasing the proportion of electricity consumption backed by renewable energy sources, the company said.

It has also updated its 2030 science-based targets to ensure that the company is aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius climate scenario, as included in the Paris Agreement. The targets are still pending validation by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Under the company’s Olives programme, it issued a sustainability-linked bond and two sustainability-linked credit facilities with climate-related sustainability performance targets (SPTs) in FY2023.

These include a US$100 million digital sustainability-linked bond, a S$500 million sustainability-linked revolving credit facility and a A$1.4 billion (S$1.3 billion) sustainability-linked revolving credit facility.

The company also noted that its total greenhouse gas emissions in FY2023 across all three scopes stood at 4,007,299 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), down 53.6 per cent from FY2022.

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Scope 1 and 2 emissions stood at 438,957 tCO2e, 11.3 per cent lower than FY2022 and 20.5 per cent lower than that of Singtel’s 2015 baseline. It added that it has met its SPTs for its sustainability-linked loans and bonds for the year.

In response to queries from The Business Times, a Singtel spokesperson said that the company’s current sustainability-linked loans and bonds were issued based on its 2025 Scope 1 and 2 targets.

Although Singtel’s net-zero goal has been moved to 2045, this does not change the company’s 2025 targets or the SPTs in the loans and bonds that were already issued, added the spokesperson.

“We will look to (update) our Olives framework to incorporate the new targets for any future sustainability-linked financing,” he said.

Shares of Singtel closed 2 per cent or S$0.05 higher at S$2.53 on Tuesday.