Temasek Holdings unit Pavilion Energy's chief executive Seah Moon Ming is stepping down in order to focus more on his role as chairman of SMRT Corp.

Mr Frederic Bernaud, chief commercial officer of LNG, oil/LPG and shipping at Gazprom Marketing and Trading group in London, has been appointed the new CEO with effect from Feb 1. The French national has more than 25 years of experience in the energy, oil and gas sectors.

Mr Seah had indicated his wish to devote more time and attention to his new role as chairman of SMRT, said Pavilion Energy chairman Mohd Hassan Marican.

Mr Seah joined the SMRT board on Jan 1 this year, and was appointed chairman of SMRT Corp and SMRT Trains on July 17. He had previously served as senior managing director at Temasek International and was deputy CEO of ST Engineering between 2004 and 2013.

''The board is confident that Moon Ming leaves the group in a strong position, and the group will transit to (the) new leadership well based on these solid foundations,'' Tan Sri Hassan said in a statement yesterday.

SMRT said the board, CEO and management of the rail operator ''welcome the opportunity to work even more closely with Mr Seah'' from February next year.

The rail operator said that under the guidance of Mr Seah and its board, it remains focused on initiatives such as asset renewal and strengthening its management, operations and maintenance teams, as well as building up its engineering and operational capabilities,

''These initiatives aim to achieve higher reliability, availability, maintainability, safety and security, not just to address the challenges of an ageing system, but to deliver continually over the life of key critical infrastructure like the MRT system.''