Talk on SQ Developments

[LionCity]

Went to a talk on SQ's past developments by Lim Chin Beng at National Library, Singapore. Lim, a veteran with SQ and I believed he became Vice-Chairman of SQ at one time. Founded Valuair with some partners.

Couple of points:

a. The Grandparent of SQ, Malayan airlines was apparently a feeder for British and Australian airlines.

b. Landing rights to some European destinations were very difficult to obtain initially with a lot of obstacles and involved a lot of prolonged negotiations and trading. But landing rights very valuable due to nationalistic interests.

c. His personal opinion was that eventually Australia will open up Australia to US sector in a matter of time.

d. Valuair failed due to high fuel prices and lack of deep pockets to maintain long-term sustainability. But Valuair has valuable landing rights to Indonesia that other LCCs do not have.

e. SQ told by Govt that it have to self-sustaining and Sin Govt would not support it financially for prestige reasons and it rather let it fail if it was not self-sustaining.

f. SQ to be international from the very beginning e.g. caviar instead of cheaper local delights like fried kway teow or laksa. However, first change was the introduction of satay.

g. Asked him about CEA bid. Did not give his opinion of CEA bid (rightly so) Just discussed about the potential advantages and pitfalls.

Mr. Lim seems to be a very down to earth gentleman with no airs about him.

[jjpb3]

Went to a talk on SQ's past developments by Lim Chin Beng at National Library, Singapore. Lim, a veteran with SQ and I believed he became Vice-Chairman of SQ at one time. Founded Valuair with some partners.

Thanks for sharing, LionCity. Sounds like a very informative talk. I wish I could have been there.

e. SQ told by Govt that it have to self-sustaining and Sin Govt would not support it financially for prestige reasons and it rather let it fail if it was not self-sustaining.

This is so often conveniently overlooked or ignored by people who grouse about SQ's success.

[LionCity]

Unfortunately, I only knew about the talk on the same afternoon and rushed down. Otherwise I would have posted it on this website. It is a pity that the National Library did not publicized it very much. Most of the folks attended were students, ex-SQ staff and some retirees. A very low key event and would have been more interesting if there have been other SQTalkers have attended it.

Maybe someone from SQtalk could organize an event for us to invite Mr. Lim or other SQ Management to give a talk on SQ's past and future developments.

[huaiwei]

Ah a missed opportunity indeed. I wonder what are his views on the pros and cons of the CEA investment?

[LionCity]

Ah a missed opportunity indeed. I wonder what are his views on the pros and cons of the CEA investment?

The opinion expressed (put in my own words) is that traffic rights are always hard to come by for any airlines. The investment will work well in placing SQ to access the large and growing China market from a strategic point of view. But the devil is in the details and managing a company cross border is not easy and this where the challenge lies.

Mr. Lim was asked what he thinks of the past failure of SQ in Air NZ and Virgin Atlantic. He mentioned that he was not involved in these deals.

My opinion is that Mr. Lim is someone who has a lot of operational experiences and is probably not easily swayed by investment bankers or other managers to simply invest easy in a foreign concern. He will probably looked into these operational issues very closely before coming into a decision.

[787]

yes, it was very informative. a little background on Mr Lim,

Mr Lim is a Director of CapitaLand Limited, Pontiac Land Pte Ltd and StarHub Ltd. He is also Chairman of CapitaLand Hope Foundation and Singapore Airshow and Events Pte Ltd. He was previously Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited and Somerset Holdings Limited from June 1999. A former Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Singapore Airlines and Ambassador to Japan, Mr Lim has held various distinguished appointments, including Chairman of the Singapore Tourism Board. Mr Lim was named Businessman of the Year in 1986, and is currently a member of the Public Service Commission. He is an Economics graduate from the University of Malaya in Singapore.

A very nice man, no airs whatsoever.