ST Engineering

ST Engineering's history began with its precursor, the Chartered Industries of Singapore, which was established in 1967 by the newly-independent Singaporean government as an ammunition manufacturer. Businesses related to aerospace and shipbuilding were later created and put under the ST umbrella. The ST group of companies went commercial in 1990, setting up its first commercial airframe manufacturing, repair and overhaul facilities in Singapore and the United States. ST Engineering was created in December 1997 as a merger of four listed companies: ST Aerospace, ST Electronics, ST Kinetics and ST Marine. Its shares debuted on the Singapore Exchange on 8 December 1997.[3][4]

Since then, ST Engineering has grown to become one of Asia's largest defence and engineering groups for commercial and defence organisations across multiple industries.[5] In Mar 2007, ST Engineering was ranked 19th in the aerospace & defence industry and 1,661th of 2,000 of the world's largest public companies by Forbes.[6]

ST Engineering is a major player in the defence and military industries. It was ranked Number 53 in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's list of the world's top 100 defence manufacturers in 2015.[7] Outside of Singapore, it has sold defence products to over 100 countries,[8] including United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Sweden, India, Thailand and Finland.[9] ST Engineering has a network of over 100 subsidiaries and associated companies in 46 cities spanning 24 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.[2]

ST Engineering expanded to the United States in 2001, locating its U.S. headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. It oversees subsidiaries and affiliates throughout the continental US and in Canada. It was known as VT Systems (VTS; formerly known as Vision Technologies Systems) until July 1, 2019, when VTS was disbanded to streamline company operations.[10]

China is also an important market for the Singapore Technologies Engineering group, where it has presence in the aerospace, electronics and land systems sectors and plans to further expand its businesses there, including the marine sector. The group's key operations in China comprise an aircraft MRO facility in Shanghai; an IT software development in Shenzhen and R&D centre in Shanghai; automotive maintenance centres in Guangzhou and Hangzhou; and factories in Beijing and Guiyang to produce specialty vehicles for the construction and mining industries. The group also has representative offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu. The group also has representative offices in India and Kazakhstan.

As of March 3, 2014, Capital Group Companies has a 5.5166% shares in ST Engineering.[11]

ST Engineering offers numerous services and products through its four strategic business areas in aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine transport.[12]

Originally set up as a weapons supplier for the Singapore Armed Forces, ST Engineering was one of the few companies in the world that continued to manufacture anti-personnel land mines[15] and has been excluded from the Norway State Pension Fund, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, and the Netherlands' ABP for the "production of weapons that through their normal use may violate fundamental humanitarian principles".[16]

As of 2015, ST Engineering is no longer in the business of designing, producing and selling of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions or any related key components.[17]

In 2014, ST Engineering and its subsidiaries ST Engineering Marine and ST Engineering Aerospace were hit by one of the largest corruption scandals in Singapore history following investigations by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.[18][19][20]

In December 2014, former ST Engineering Marine and ST Engineering Aerospace president, Chang Cheow Teck, was charged with conspiring with two subordinates to offer bribes in return for ship-repair contracts between 2004 and 2010.[21] The corruption charges were eventually withdrawn and in January 2017, Chang pleaded guilty to "failing to use reasonable diligence in performing his duties" and was given a short detention order of 14 days.[18] Former ST Marine CEO and president See Leong Teck was also charged with seven counts of corruption.[21] In December 2016, See was sentenced to 10 months' jail and a $100,000 fine.[19]

Since then, six other former ST Engineering Marine senior executives were implicated in the corruption scandal, including former financial controller and senior vice-president of finance Ong Tek Liam who pleaded guilty to ten out of 118 charges in relating to the falsification of accounts,[22] former senior vice-president Mok Kim Whang who pleaded guilty to 49 out of 826 corruption charges,[20] ex-chief operating officer Han Yew Kwang who pleaded guilty to 50 out of 407 charges and was sentenced to six months' jail and fined $80,000,[23] former president of commercial business Tan Mong Seng who faced 445 corruption charges[24] and was sentenced to 16 weeks' jail,[20][25] and ex-financial controller Patrick Lee Swee Ching who pled guilty to seven of 38 charges of conspiring with others between 2004 and 2007 to make false entries in petty cash vouchers, and was given the maximum fine of $210,000.[26]

Several former employees and two board members have also implicated in the corruption scandal.[21][19]

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