A tale of two outages: DBS, Singtel show market impact of regulatory response

SHARES of telecommunications company Singtel sank to a 52-week intraday low of S$2.28 on Monday (Nov 20), after Australian subsidiary Optus announced the stepping down of chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.

The stock ended the day at S$2.31, down 0.9 per cent or S$0.02, adding to two weeks of losses. The counter has fallen S$0.17 or 6.9 per cent since Nov 7. It lost 4.8 per cent of its value on Nov 8 alone. That was the day Optus experienced a network outage affecting 10 million customers across its mobile, broadband and landline services.

The outage resulted in disruption to critical services, such as hospitals and train services, and an uncomfortable senate hearing for Rosmarin on Nov 17.