ST Engineering Annual Report 2020

Q/ What are your priorities as Group CFO in the newly reorganised structure? One of the key objectives of the new organisation is to seek sustainable, long-term global growth in our identified business areas. To achieve this, the finance function must be equipped with the right resources (people and technology) and to "think and act global". Functions such as the risk management, treasury, insurance, tax and financial planning & analysis will take on a more global perspective. Finance business partnering is also a priority area for our team. We will be focused on becoming invaluable partners to our business leads and adding value in areas for strategy formulation, creative financing solutions, tax planning, financial hedging and risk management. As part of the Group’s push for digitalisation, my team is focusing on applying digital technologies to build a robust financial infrastructure to support our business operations. These include automation, data visualisation, and data analytics to improve decision-making. Financial planning and analysis, and credit evaluation are two examples of how digitalisation can produce insights for timely and better business decisions. Q/ How does this new organisation change your capital structure and portfolio management approaches? To do well, companies must formulate strategies that are not just bold but executable. Effective execution is when sustainable competitive advantages are created. For companies to thrive, they would require effective risk management, competitive channels, conducive corporate culture, good capital management and access to effective funding, amongst others. "My team is focused on finance business partnering and digital technologies applications to build a robust financial infrastructure to better support our business operations." Q&A WITH CEDRIC Group Chief Financial Officer / ST ENG I NEER I NG 28