SingPost fires CEO Vincent Phang, CFO Vincent Yik over handling of whistleblowing report

SINGAPORE POST (SingPost) has terminated the employment of three of its senior management staff, as they were found to be negligent in the handling of internal investigations over a whistleblower’s report that it received earlier this year.

The employment of group chief executive Vincent Phang, group chief financial officer Vincent Yik, and the chief executive of the company’s international business unit (IBU) Li Yu were terminated with immediate effect on Dec 21, 2024.

Phang was also requested to resign as a director of SingPost and all its related companies, the company said in a bourse filing on Sunday (Dec 22).

SingPost will announce the appointment of its new group CEO “in due course”, while Isaac Mah, current CFO of its Australian business, the FMH Group, will be appointed as the new group CFO.

Meanwhile, an acting CEO will be appointed to lead the IBU pending a board review of the unit – no appointment of a new IBU CEO is being proposed at this stage.

Board chairman Simon Israel will provide increased guidance to and exercise greater oversight of the senior management leadership team.

Whistleblowing report and internal investigations

SingPost said it received a whistleblowing report relating to its non-regulated international e-commerce logistics parcels business earlier this year.

Investigations by the company found that three managers in the IBU had “committed serious breaches of the company’s code of conduct” by making manual updates, about “one of its largest” customer’s deliveries, that were not in accordance with the company’s standard processes.

The employment of these three individuals was terminated earlier, and the company has also made a police report against them.

The company also engaged an external law firm to review management’s conduct in the matter.

It found that the group CEO, group CFO and the CEO of the IBU were “grossly negligent” in the handling of the internal investigations, and had omitted to consider material facts that compromised their decision-making and/or failed to perform their duties responsibly and reliably.

Phang, Yik and Li were found to have failed to exercise due diligence and breached their duties to the company.

Given the seriousness of these lapses and findings, the board said it has “lost confidence and trust” in the judgment of the three, and in their ability to perform their duties towards promoting and protecting the interests of the company.

Phang and Yik each said they will “vigorously contest” the termination of employment, on both merits and grounds of procedural unfairness.

SingPost said postal services in Singapore will not be affected as each of its businesses has its own leadership team, and will continue to operate normally.

Meanwhile, SingPost has informed the customer about the whistleblowing report and the findings. They have agreed on a settlement under which, among others, the company would pay a settlement sum in lieu of the penalties.

The company does not expect the settlement to have a material impact on its net tangible assets or earnings per share for the current financial year.

Its business with the customer has also not been materially affected – the contract has since been renewed following the settlement.

Phang was appointed group CEO on Sep 1, 2021. He joined SingPost in 2019, and had been its CEO for the postal services segment and Singapore.

Prior to joining SingPost, Phang was the group CEO of ST Logistics and executive vice-president of Toll Global Logistics Singapore.

Yik joined SingPost in December 2021. Before that, he had held key executive roles at various companies, including CFO at OUE Lippo Healthcare and CFO of Far East Orchard.

Li joined SingPost on Sep 12, 2022, from United Parcel Service, where he was most recently responsible for its Asia-Pacific global logistics and distribution.

Shares of SingPost rose 0.9 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.56 on Friday, before the announcement.