Investors should consider the motivations of major shareholders in Sembcorp Marine’s deals

MARIE Antoinette probably never uttered the words, “Let them eat cake”. But her alleged response to being told that the peasants of France had no bread is a widely understood allusion to the mighty being callously indifferent to the plight of the weak.

The phrase came to mind while I was reading a report in The Business Times earlier this month about Sembcorp Industries (SCI) contemplating a special dividend after delivering blowout financial numbers for H1 2022.

“We want to make sure the cake is cut in a manner where everyone gets fairly allocated a slice of the cake,” said SCI’s chief executive, Wong Kim Yin, during a media and analyst briefing on Aug 5.