CFO resigns, appointment of FC
- Resignation of CFO who was appointed in April 2021; Appointment of new FC
- Surprised with news, though comforted by long notice period – last day on 28 Feb 2023
- Notice period helps in handover and likely timed to be after FY22 results
- No change to our recommendation and views
What’s new
Resignation of CFO, appointment of FC. Sheng Siong announced last evening that it’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ms Joanne Chua, 62, has resigned to pursue her personal interest. She will be serving her notice and her last day will be on 28 Feb 2023, about 5 months from now. Correspondingly, it was also announced that Mr Fan Hongbo, 46, has been appointed as the Financial Controller (FC) of the company with the job description similar to that in Ms Chua’s announcement.
Ms Chua appointed to CFO role on 1 April 2021. Ms Chua was appointed to the current role of CFO last year on 1 Apr 2021, bringing with her almost four decades of work experience and of which 22 was in the FMCG industry. She took over when the previous Finance Director, Mr Wong Soong Kit, retired.
According to the announcement of his appointment, Mr Fan recently joined Sheng Siong on 1 Sep 2022, and he was previously from Lion Asiapac Limited for almost a decade from Mar 2013 to Aug 2022 as Finance Manager. Mr Fan graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and competed his ACCA with The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore from 2004 to 2006 and his MBA from Strathclyde Business School from 2014 to 2018.
Our views
Surprised with news though comforted with long notice period for handover. We are surprised by Ms Chua’s resignation, given her relatively short tenure. However, we are comforted that there is a long notice period amounting to 5 months, and is likely timed to ensure the FY2022 results are reported on the SGX by end Feb 2023. This also provides a good lead time for the FC, Mr Fan, to assume her duties.
As such, we do not see any potential red flags at this juncture. Despite a slight easing of topline in its 2Q22 by 7.4% y-o-y, this was on the back of a high base effect in 2021 due to in-home consumption as COVID-19 restrictions were still prevalent then. Notwithstanding that, we believe Sheng Siong’s operations is likely to remain relatively stable with surging inflation that bites consumers’ wallet, thus prompting a moderation in dine-out in favour of more affordable in-home consumption.