SINGAPORE - Listed transport firm ComfortDelGro has appointed a deputy chief executive for the first time.
The firm said on Wednesday (March 16) that Mr Cheng Siak Kian, who is the chief executive of bus and rail operator SBS Transit, will take on the new role with immediate effect.
The Straits Times had reported on Mr Cheng's planned appointment on Monday (March 14). The move is seen to be one that paves the way for Mr Cheng, 52, to succeed ComfortDelGro chief executive Yang Ban Seng.
Mr Cheng will retain his role as the chief executive of SBS Transit, while also replacing Mr Yang as executive deputy chairman at the public transport operator. SBS Transit is a listed subsidiary of ComfortDelGro.
ComfortDelGro said a key part of Mr Cheng's new role will be a focus on the group's overseas businesses and global expansion strategy.
Mr Lim Jit Poh, chairman of ComfortDelGro, said the management changes were in line with the group's planned succession strategy.
Mr Lim, who was on a five-member committee that oversaw a year-long search to fill the deputy chief executive role, said: "We were cognisant that we have to find someone who can steer the group into its next phase of growth, as well as have the ability to navigate the highly regulated industries we operate in."
Both internal and external candidates were assessed during the search.
Mr Yang, 65, will complete his fifth year as head of the Singapore-based multinational transport group this year, and is expected to step down by next year.
Mr Cheng, a former brigadier-general and commander in the Republic of Singapore Air Force, joined the group in 2015.
He was senior vice-president of SBS Transit, before being posted to Australia to helm ComfortDelGro's New South Wales operations in December 2016. According to ComfortDelGro, he played an instrumental role in several business acquisitions and moved the company into new areas such as non-emergency patient transportation.
In July 2019, he returned to Singapore to become chief operating officer of SBS Transit. In March 2021, he was named its chief executive.
If he is eventually appointed head of ComfortDelGro, observers point out that Mr Cheng will have huge challenges ahead of him. ComfortDelGro's core taxi business in Singapore has halved in size since private-hire operators entered the fray in 2013, and the contraction may not be over.
