The first benefit is perhaps one of the most important but also one of the most misunderstood values of implementing an Employee Share Plan. Simply put, if you align your workforce and your organisation with a common goal it promotes engagement, invites innovation and drives productivity and profitability. All due to ensuring your employees have a sense of ownership. The implementation of an Employee Share Plan ensures that your employees don’t feel like a cog in a machine, but feel they play a fundamental role in business success. That success then becomes tangible when they see the impact to their Employee Share Plan when the company’s stock price improves.

Companies that adopt an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”) have seen much better retention rates due to the long-term benefits associated with having an ESOP. Employee Stock Ownership Plans provide employees with ownership interest in the company. Typically, the longer they stay with the company the greater the benefits which is why they can be used in the facilitation of succession planning.

ESOPs can often have tax benefits for employees and company alike so are typically implemented as part of a corporate finance strategy. This makes ESOPs a desirable piece of any employee package and as a result aide in retention of employees. In addition to this with the right Employee Stock ownership Plan a business can create desire within top talent, ultimately benefiting your business.

If you want to generate liquidity for your business but are concerned about losing the operating control that comes along with selling to a third party then an Employee Share Plan might be a viable solution. With an Employee Share plan in place, owners can choose to sell a minority interest, as little as 20 percent, which will generate the liquidity needed.

The benefits associated are not just for the business owner in this scenario, in the case of employees, it enables investment opportunities that might not otherwise have been viable. Many employees do not have the cash to buy shares, a business who implements an Employee Share Plan changes this through the setup of a trust and selling to their employees. Employee’s will then receive shares over time as a retirement benefit.

Employee Share Plans are often used as a part of a corporate finance strategy for their obvious tax deduction benefits. Many regimes around the world today provides a tax-deductible status for company stock contributions, dividends and cash contributions. Their inception was driven by a need to give employees an opportunity to reap rewards from an increase in the value of the company they work for. In doing so, it also encourages loyalty to a company as well as a vested interest in delivering good work which will grow the company.

It is to be expected that a major benefit of having an Employee Share Plan in place long term is the impact on corporate culture. If you have successfully implemented an Employee Share Plan, strategically aligning your employee and shareholder values, you are bound to see dividends in output due to the sense of ownership. All business operations and interactions will be conducted by a team who is engaged and truly cares about the business beyond their personal monthly paycheck.

This shift in mindset will have long term benefits for the company, fundamentally shifting their corporate culture and creating differentiation in the marketplace. Not only will you become a desirable place to work but your productivity, profits and employee engagement will all increase. Over time, this can become a significant competitive advantage.

We have designed an all-rounded encompassing solution comprising of an experienced Share Plan team of practitioners and a digital solution to help you manage your strategic initiative.

Whether you are a startup or a company looking to go public, it is always wise to engage a company with the best qualifications possible.

In Singapore, a corporate secretary of a public company must be suitably qualified, and satisfy one of the following criteria, at the very minimum:

• Been a secretary of a company for at least 3 of the 5 years immediately before his/her appointment as secretary of the public company
• Qualified person under the Legal Profession Act
• Public Accountant registered under the Accountants Act
• Member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants
• Member of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries Singapore
• Member of the Association of International Accountants (Singapore Branch)
• Member of the Institute of Company Accountants, Singapore

If the company you are considering has staff who can meet all these requirements, then you can be assured it is fully capable of handling the corporate secretarial services of both public and private firms.

It is especially important to choose a reputable secretarial services firm that is aware of all the local rules and regulations, including any extensions or modifications.

They have to be able to handle the arrangement of AGMs, tax filing as well as the maintenance and filing of company records within the time stipulated by the authorities. Further to this, a great secretarial services provider should ensure that your business is well organised and in effect ensuring you save costs in the long run.

The final piece to consider when asking this question is in relation to international law. If your company operates internationally your company secretary will need to have knowledge of the local laws in different countries which may affect local proceedings, not just your domicile region. International law is vastly complex with rules about taxes, trade, currency conversion, and that contracts vary from region to region so it’s important you ask this question when considering not only the company but also the services you require for your corporate secretary.

As your business grows, it can be beneficial to outsource the non-core functions to a single provider so your time and resources are free to focus on core functions and strategic opportunities. Non-core functions include: financial accounting (recording and preparing the income statement, the balance sheet and the statement of cash flows); tax filing; and company payroll (processing payment instructions, generating salaries and statutory reports, filing bank payments, and creating electronic pay slips).

Having all these services under one roof makes it easier for you in the short term as you don’t need to spend time hunting for individual providers, but also in the long term with the efficiencies created through having a single provider manage your non-core business operations.

Moreover, it is likely that your provider will be able to customise a specific package which encompasses all your business needs, allowing you to also enjoy significant cost savings.

Having a single point of contact allows for excellent communication. Such an individual will be familiar with the history and operations of your company.

This allows for a long-term partnership and for your corporate secretary to grow with your business, providing personalised customer care.

There is a specific time-frame during which annual returns should be filed, and an Annual General Meeting should be held. Having a dedicated corporate secretary will ensure that all these details will be attended to promptly as non-compliance of any of these regulations could result in penalties.

As with any decision, you need to think about the future of your business and what direction you’re heading. If you’re considering going public or even evolving your corporate structure you will need a firm that goes beyond providing the basic corporate secretarial services. You’ll have to look for a provider that has a track record of handling not only regional but also multinational firms.

In addition to this, you will need to consider the services you may require pending the direction your company takes. As an example this could include any, or even all, of the following services: compliance; employee care; expansion (expat services and payroll); employee plan services; and shareholder support services like poll-voting and share registry.

If you are considering taking your company public there are further considerations required for the setup process, enlisting the support of a secretarial firm to manage this can ensure they manage the gruelling administrative work, saving you time and guaranteeing the process runs as smoothly as possible.

At BoardRoom, we are a top corporate services firm in Singapore with a 50 + year track record of success serving over 7,300 clients regionally. We are experts in helping companies, from multinational corporations to fast-growing SMEs, allowing them to focus on what matters – growing their business. From handling tax accounting to managing secretarial duties for companies across Asia-Pacific, our full suite of corporate services allow our clients to stay compliant, maximise savings and stay organised for better decision making.

Contact us today and empower your organisation with greater freedom through our range of corporate solutions.

Or you can also learn more about our corporate secretarial solutions here.

The role of a corporate secretary is to handle all the corporate secretarial activities of your company such as preparation and lodgement of annual return and statutory returns to the local authority within the prescribed deadline, and ensure your company is compliant in the eyes of the law.

There are restrictions however when it comes to appointing your corporate secretary – they cannot be the company’s sole director, nor can they be a shareholder. While you might be considering getting one of your employees or even another director to be the corporate secretary, it is highly recommended that you engage a professional firm to act as your corporate secretary in delivering optimal results for your company.

A professional corporate secretarial service should not only help you with the regulatory compliance requirements but also provide advisory services before you even incorporate a company to ensure your business is set-up for success.

This is doubly important if you are a foreign entity looking to establish a presence in Singapore to tap into the Asian market’s as well as enjoy low corporate taxes in the city-state. A professional service provider would go the extra mile and ensure you structure your organisation in such a way that will allow you to maximise your benefits such as tax breaks and incentives.

In this article, we will be bringing you through the 3 types of corporate secretarial services you will need from your service provider.

From Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) to Private Limited Companies (Pte Ltd) and Public Companies, deciding on your business structure requires ample consideration and planning.

While an LLP might be easier and cheaper to start, it doesn’t give the founders or partners the same level of liability protection compared to a Pte Ltd company.

Your service provider will be able to analyse which business structure makes the most sense and help you with the entire registration process of your company or representative office (if you are a foreign entity). This will also include advice on and application of employment and residency passes as well as permanent residency and dependent passes if there is a need for relocation to Singapore.

Your corporate secretary is a key position that ensures your organisation is compliant with statutory obligations and will have to be constantly up-to-date with the rules and regulations set down by ACRA. This is one of the core reasons why entrepreneurs and big companies are starting to outsource this responsibility to experienced firms with the requisite knowledge and track-record to save time and stay compliant.

 At BoardRoom, we provide our clients will the full suite of regulatory compliance services needed. These include:

• Annual statutory and regulatory compliance in Singapore (as well as in Australia, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia)
• The provision of named corporate secretary, nominee director and nominee authorised representative
• Serving as acting process agents
• Proper maintenance of statutory registers and records
• Effective reporting to relevant statutory authorities of any alterations to corporate structures or memberships
• Advice and assistance with reporting and compliance requirements relating to the stock exchanges of Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, and Australia
• Preparation of board and shareholders’ resolutions
• Attendance and minutes-recording at board and shareholder meetings 

In addition, as a full accounting and advisory company, we also help customise solutions for our customers that include payroll and tax accounting.

Together with corporate secretarial services, we synergise the various back-office functions of a company so that you not only save time but also reap a number of benefits that include cost savings and tax savings.

In the event you decide to restructure your organisation or cease doing business, there will be rules that have to be followed to ensure a smooth transition without the risk of penalties.

At BoardRoom, should your business decide to evolve into a public company or cease operations, we can advise and assist with the striking-off and members’ voluntary liquidation of companies.

At BoardRoom, we are a top corporate services firm in Singapore with a 50 + year track record of success serving over 7,300 clients regionally.

We are experts in helping companies, from multinational corporations to fast-growing SMEs, allowing them to focus on what matters – growing their business.

From handling tax accounting to managing secretarial duties for companies across Asia-Pacific, our full suite of corporate services allow our clients to stay compliant, maximise savings and stay organised for better decision making.

Contact us today and empower your organisation with our range of corporate solutions.

Or you can also learn more about our corporate secretarial solutions here.

With the world becoming ever more globalized it’s not surprising that our workforce has followed the trend. This globalization of the workforce has posed challenges for companies deploying global Employee Share Option Plans for a variety of reasons. Currently, global participants need to go through tedious administration processes with HR to set up their Central Depository (CDP) account, receive physical offer letters and have near zero visibility on their equity plan information in real time.

As a result, we have seen some global participants go as far as taking leave to travel to the respective equity issuing country to open their share depository accounts with the local exchanges to enable transmission of shares in their name. This process is not only tedious it’s completely impractical and unnecessary with the right partner.

Believe it or not, in this digital age most companies still manage their Employee Share Option Plans on a spreadsheet. Whilst spreadsheets are known to be robust and “excel” (*pun intended) in capturing static information for operational purposes they have a drastic impact on ease and efficiency of implementation and administration of Employee Share Option Plans.

User expectations are shifting drastically, we all demand “relevant and insightful” access to information “anytime and anywhere” at our convenience. In answer to this, it is imperative to find a dynamic solution to capture, process and report information in real-time to enable participant visibility and reach without creating a manual resource drain.

Whilst many companies and employees have seen the benefit of adopting an Employee Share Plan, uptake across ASEAN is slower as employees continue to value cash reward as a variable incentive plan.

The current behaviors from a cultural standpoint are more aligned towards short term instant gratification due to a lack of understanding of how equity is a form of reward and recognition for their efforts. The “cash is king” mentality still reigns supreme, and we all know the risks associated with this mindset.

This is potentially the Achilles heel of successful implementation and administration of Employee Share Option Plans, a mindset that this is a box ticking exercise and no different to periodic transaction activities like payroll.

This can be due to any number of factors, a lack of cultural acceptance within the organisation of equity plans or it’s seen as a cumbersome task. Typical management of Employee Share Option Plans on a spreadsheet can be extremely tedious and, in the more complex cases, a full-time job for 1 full time equivalent. There is a wealth of time-consuming administrative processes that need to happen; the offer management process, vesting management, record keeping of participant information, liaising with participants on plan mechanism, leaver management, regulatory reporting, the list goes on. Many HR Practitioners don’t realise there is an alternative solution to the manual labour currently associated with administrating equity plans.

Most solutions in the marketplace today are designed for functional purposes only, they provide static data and are table driven. This is not surprising given most were designed with the sole aim of record keeping and generating reports for Financial Reporting, Payroll Tax Computation & Reporting.

What is surprising is that there is a global push in nearly every industry sector to focus on user experience. Especially in relation to employee engagement strategies, employees just demand more today, for Share Plans participants need to have real-time information access, share price movement, a one-stop integrated trading platform, and historical information for individual income tax declaration purposes. We live in a digital era and any solution that doesn’t embrace this is considered obsolete very quickly.

We have designed an all-rounded encompassing solution comprising of an experienced Share Plan team of practitioners and a digital solution to help you manage your strategic initiative.

Hiring an experienced full-time accountant could set you back not only thousands of dollars a month but also substantial training time and costs to get them up to speed.

You can eliminate these concerns by engaging a professional accounting firm. By paying a monthly service fee, you gain access to the expertise of a team of accountants proficient in various areas of accounting, be it tax management or bookkeeping. This allows you to save hiring costs as well as recruitment training time. Moreover, you will be able to avoid costly errors or employee turnover.

When your accounting is done right, you will have a clearer picture of your company’s financial health. This allows you to make informed decisions to support your business growth. You will also gain greater insight into the feasibility of critical decisions. These include deciding if the time could be ripe for the opening of another local or overseas branch or maybe to hire a new employee.

A credible accounting firm helps you understand your receivables and collections and paints a clear picture of your company’s cash flow and business seasonality. When you engage a regional accounting firm, you gain access to their advisory services and market analysts.

Through sound accounting practices, you can begin to understand your company’s performance and start to make strategically sound decisions, setting your business up for success.

Running a business itself is time-consuming and costly. The last thing you want to happen is to run afoul with the Singapore tax authority (IRAS) and be hit by a potential audit or even worse, suffer financial penalties.

As your company grows, organising the paperwork for tax reporting becomes increasingly complex and tedious as it encompasses many things including payroll and Profit & Loss Statement.

A professional accounting firm is well-versed in tax laws and procedures, helping you avoid potential pitfalls. They can quickly spot any irregularities and ensure your accounting records are faultless, allowing you to stay compliant and enjoy peace of mind.

While staying compliant is of critical importance, outsourcing to a professional accounting service in Singapore allows you to enjoy tax breaks and exemptions that you might have been unaware of.

To claim these tax rebates and business expense deductions, you must meet a set of qualifying conditions. Many nuances are involved in obtaining these deductions successfully and legally.

Moreover, if you conduct business overseas, there are numerous tax treaties that you may be unfamiliar with. This could lead to double taxation, causing you to pay more taxes than you need to.

A professional accounting firm can advise you on all the tax benefits you are entitled to along with helping you obtain them so that you minimise costs and keep profits high.

As we move towards a technological age, it is important that your accounting records are stored in a digital format so that they are well organised and easily retrieved for reference or financial analysis.

A professional accounting service can set up a secure platform with advanced software for your company. Other aspects such as payroll and claims submission can also be integrated into the platform so that the company’s confidential information and records are kept electronically in a secure location.

They can also create digital analytical reports which help you identify the most profitable areas of your business to drive growth.

At BoardRoom, we are a regional accounting firm in Singapore and are experts in helping companies, from corporations to fast-growing SMEs, allowing them to focus on what matters – growing their business.

From handling tax accounting to managing statutory compliance reporting for companies across Asia-Pacific, we help companies with our full suite of accounting services, allowing them to stay compliant, maximise their tax benefits and stay organised for better decision making.

Contact us today and empower your organisation with greater freedom through our accounting solutions.

Or you can also learn more about our accounting solutions here.

Bookkeepers in an accounting firm can help you to keep a record of general ledger reports, trial balances, profit and loss statements, balance sheets and schedules.

Bookkeeping also involves bank reconciliations, which compares your accounting data to what the bank has recorded, helping to identify any discrepancies in your records or possible transaction errors.

An accounting firm doing your bookkeeping also ensures that all relevant documents and information (financial statements, tax computation and supporting schedules, comprehensive profit and loss statements) are kept for easy reference. This helps to speed up the retrieval of documents for statutory reporting and filing of taxes.

With thorough and updated bookkeeping, you can swiftly identify problems related to revenue and cash flow early, helping to avoid any adverse impacts on your business if otherwise left unchecked.

As your business grows, there will be a myriad of legal obligations your company has to comply with. These obligations include the notification of changes of share capital if new shareholders or directors are added or removed, as well as the meeting of tax and accounting requirements that could change depending on your business model and activities.

Another key obligation is the filing of year-end financial statements and board resolutions that are needed by Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

A credible accounting firm assists you in the understanding of convoluted statutory requirements and ensures that you comply with the laws.

The last thing you want is an audit by IRAS digging through your past records, wasting even more of your resources and time or worse – issuing a hefty fine to your company for non-compliance and/or errors!

While paying taxes is part and parcel of running a business, it is unnecessary to pay beyond what is needed. In fact, you might be able to save on quite a bit of taxes, if you only know what look out for!

A good accounting firm not only provides tax accounting services but also helps you develop a long-term strategy to achieve significant tax savings over time.

Effective tax planning strategies help to lower the amount of taxable income, allowing for greater control over when taxes are paid while maximising tax relief.

An accounting firm can also evaluate the tax consequences of cross-border transactions to improve your firm’s tax position. For example, if your business is spread across different countries, taxes on business operations and/or transactions could be difficult depending on the jurisdictions and availability of tax treaties.

With a multitude of regulations to be met coupled with a growing number of employees, payroll becomes increasingly complex as your company grows.

Ensuring your employees get paid is one aspect that cannot be overlooked.

In addition to computing gross to net salary and CPF as well as the management of your payroll, accountants can help to prepare your year-end IR8A (employee earnings reporting) forms for filing with IRAS.

Vendor payment taking up a significant portion of your time?

Many accounting firms today also help you with the payment of vendor invoices and employee expense claims via cheques, online banking, electronic transfers, telegraphic transfers or other forms of payment.

Accounting doesn’t just keep you compliant with regulations, it is also a component of good business management that can help your company to grow.

A regional accounting firm has management accountants that can conduct a business analysis of past and present accounting data, as well as help analyse different sales channels, products, services, marketing activities and business models.

Management accountants will analyse the basic data and make forecasts, budgets, performance measurements and plans, then present them to senior management to assist in its operational decision making. A management accountant may also identify trends and opportunities for improvement, improvement, analyse and manage risk, arrange the funding and financing of operations and monitor and enforce compliance.

By staying up to date with industry trends, management accounting can provide and advise on long-term strategies that enable you to surpass your competitors and achieve your business objectives.

At Boardroom, we are experts in accounting, helping companies from corporations to fast-growing SMEs, with their accounting outsourcing, allowing them to focus on what matters – growing their business and getting more clients.

From handling tax accounting to managing statutory compliance reporting for companies across Asia-Pacific, we help companies with our full suite of accounting services, allowing them to remain compliant, maximise their tax benefits and stay organised in their bookkeeping.

Contact us today and empower your organisation with greater freedom through our accounting solutions.

Or you can also learn more about our accounting solutions here.

Am I a growing SME under ten employees? Or maybe I have a bigger regional business with branches spread across Asia-Pacific.

While every company requires mandatory payroll management services that include the computation of gross to net salary, statutory deductions as well as the preparation of year-end forms, a regional company will require these across multiple countries as well as additional services to stay organised and compliant.

A suitable payroll firm for bigger companies will have the ability to provide centralised payroll coordination through their network of local offices, allowing your organisation to stay compliant under the local jurisdiction you are in as well as in your local Country.

Technology is ever changing and you will need a firm that keeps up with the trends.

From the issuing of confidential payslips through electronic means to the easy access of payslips and data, a good payroll provider will provide a flexible and central platform for the administration of payroll.

Many payroll services today will allow employees to access a secure site to view their individual payroll history as well as providing an avenue for the submissions of claims and leave applications.

Most employers are becoming more and more aware of providing the same customer experience to their employees regardless of which Country they are based in or managed from. Having access to a solution that has the ability to provide this across multiple Countries is a key consideration.

Ensuring your payroll provider is tech savvy is vital not only for the convenience of your employees but also if you decide to scale your company to the next level without payroll becoming an issue.

Outsourcing to a payroll provider can be scary but it doesn’t have to be so. Conducting adequate research on your payroll service is a good way to gauge the level of security they will provide.

Look for a company that has a strong IT team coupled with secure hardware and redundant backups together with a disaster recovery system in place, should the unforeseen happen.

No matter how smooth sailing your business might seem, unforeseen issues could arise at any time.

What you would need is a partner that offers superior support during such moments of crisis.

This can come in the form of an account manager or a single-point-of-contact executive that will grow with your company as the years go by, intimately understanding your organisation and how it functions.

This will allow a smooth resolution of any potential issues that might spring up without the need for you to re-educate a new representative every time you decide to reach out.

Ask your payroll service provider if there will be a dedicated manager tasked to service your account. If they say yes, you will be in good hands.

Your service provider should also be able to offer you guaranteed levels of service through a Service Level Agreement with Key Performance Indicators that are reportable on a monthly basis.

When it comes to running a business, payroll is just a facet of many services that can be outsourced.

While there are merits to choosing a specialist company that only handles payroll, a more sensible choice would be selecting a payroll provider that offers a spectrum of services that can handle your non-core business functions. These can include corporate secretarial services, bookkeeping services as well as tax advisory.

Selecting a single provider that can handle a whole suite of related services will not only help you save time but also synergise the various aspects of your business that can lead to additional benefits such as tax savings.

At Boardroom, we are experts in helping companies, from corporations to fast-growing SMEs, with their payroll needs, allowing them to focus on what matters – growth and profitability.

From local payroll services handling to managing substantial payroll obligations for bigger companies spread across the Asia-Pacific region, we help companies take care of their people while increasing productivity.

Contact us today and empower your organisation with greater freedom through our payroll solutions.

Or you can also learn more about our payroll solutions here.

Whether your firm has five employees or fifty, processing payroll will demand a substantial amount of time and keen attention to detail.

When you outsource your payroll processing, you not only save money that might have been spent hiring a payroll administrator, you will be saving time by hiring an expert.

Professional payroll firms also have the experience of handling a myriad of situations from their years helping a variety of companies with their payroll. By outsourcing your payroll needs, you will save valuable time that might have been used to train up your in-house hire to get up to speed.

Depending on your business needs, a professional payroll service can provide basic payroll administration or customise a more complex solution that involves regional and online pay advices to employees across the entire organisation spread over different countries.

In addition, a good payroll company will also have its own platform that will allow for better reporting and generating more comprehensive reports to cater to any analysis required.

The key “mantra” with payroll is accuracy and timeliness. In some cases, this is the only contact your employees have with the Corporate Organisation and so their customer experience is paramount to their view of you as an employer. Your employees expect and deserve nothing less.

The data held for payroll is sensitive and the investments required to protect that data are a must.

The security of payroll data is also an essential factor to be considered. With the introduction of EU’s GDPR laws, an increasing number of organisations are assessing the impact of them becoming the new global standard, subsequently two questions must be asked:

How safe and secure are your company servers?

How do I protect my employee’s data?

Using a credible Payroll Outsourcing Company is key to you and your employee’s peace of mind that their data is not at risk and is dealt with by a professionally qualified organisation.

When handling payroll, there are many statutory regulations and standards that have to be met.

From the accurate computation of gross to net salary and statutory deductions, there is also a need for the preparation of the year-end reporting.

The intricacies of these reporting standards will have to be timely and mistake-free to avoid potential time-consuming audits and penalties – definitely situations that every business wants to avoid!

A professional Payroll Outsourcing Company will ensure you always remain a compliant employer.

While your first reaction might be to either task your finance team with payroll or hire a payroll specialist, both these options can actually cost more money for your company in the long run.

Routine tasks such as calculating payroll, the distribution of paychecks (both physically or electronically) as well as the preparation of payroll taxes to the government can take a toll on an in-house team that isn’t trained to do it accurately and swiftly.

Hiring a specialist might be a solution, but you would be better off spending your revenue on hiring more profit-generating roles for your business.

When you outsource to a professional payroll processing company, you will also gain access to a team of experts that can help answer your immediate questions and handle any situations that might arise with pin-point solutions.

Payroll processing companies such as Boardroom have a wealth of complementary services such as corporate secretarial and accounting services that are just a phone call or email away.

At Boardroom we also offer consulting and advisory services to solve any challenge your company might face when it comes to running the non-core business functions – these include employee plan services to expatriation services.

At Boardroom, we are experts in helping companies, from corporations to fast-growing SMEs, with their payroll, allowing them to focus on what matters – growth and profitability.

From local payroll services handling to managing substantial payroll obligations for bigger companies spread across Asia-Pacific, we help companies comply with local statutory regulations while ensuring their most valuable asset, the employees, are paid on time.

Contact us today and empower your organisation with greater freedom through our payroll solutions.

Or you can also learn more about our payroll solutions here.

To support enterprises for cash flow and growth financing, the Government has enhanced the SME Working Capital Loan scheme (subsumed under the Enterprise Financing Scheme) to take in up to 70% of the credit risks on bank loans to companies less than five years old.

This will provide them with more time to develop innovative ideas. An additional $100 million has been set aside for the SME Co-Investment Fund III to help local SMEs gain access to private capital to grow and expand overseas.

With the reduction of foreign worker quota over the next 2 years, enterprises are encouraged to improve their business by upgrading their operations and train local workers while reducing their reliance on lower skilled foreign workers.

In order to help workers upgrade their capabilities, the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) has been enhanced to include out-of-pocket training expenses capped at $10,000 per firm.

Under the SMEs Go Digital programme, industry digital plans will be catered across more sectors. Funding support will also include advanced Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity solutions.

Under the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG), local SMEs can adopt digital solutions, automation and capability development to improve their financial and operational efficiencies (e.g. engaging BoardRoom for advice on tax planning, corporate governance etc.)

The new Scale-up SG programme and Innovation Agents programme aims to support SMEs in creating customised solutions for product development or digitalising their processes.

Through these programmes, SMEs can work and be guided by experienced industry professionals with technology expertise to explore innovation opportunities to expand market growth.

Singapore Budget 2019 – 4 Key Benefits for Enterprises

• 232 Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings conducted
• More than 18,000 shareholders were registered by our teams
• 150 permanent and contract staff were deployed to execute the Meetings

Facts & Figures ~ Shareholders continue to be keenly interested on how their investment in the Listed Company has performed over time. More detailed questions are being asked relating to key performance metrics, comparing results against the budget, and whether the performance is in line with the long-term strategy already set out.

Telling the Corporate Story ~ The Board of Directors and Senior Management have become more adept in sharing the vision of the business and now are more understanding of the perspective of investors. Savvy retail investors are increasingly concerned over detailed developments of the Company which includes acquisitions and divestment, as well as the causes of significant impairment. The Boards and Management respond by sharing more of the observable trends relating to their specific industry.

Return on Investment ~ One of the often recurring discussions pertain to dividend policy as Investors continue to pursue dividend yield and acutely question Management on their rationale for cash preservation. Businesses now have to be clear about how they align their corporate story to the long-term strategy, in the attempt to convince investors to wait longer for larger pay day.

Board Governance ~ The topic of Board diversity has become increasingly rife. As at 31 December 2017, women directors increased to 13.1% of directorships on boards of the Top 100 primary-listed companies on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). The 20% increase from 2016 is the highest increase over the past three years, after 10.9% in 2016, 9.5% in 2015 and 8.6% women on board in 2014. Another key area pertains to the potential changes in the Code of Corporate Governance relating to the “Nine-year-Rule” for Director Independence. The proposed revision provides a “hard-line” criteria that Independent Directors cannot serve for more than 9-years on the same company. While waiting for the final outcome, Companies and Shareholders already see this development as an opportunity for Companies to commence the search for new qualified Independent Directors.

Shortly after the conclusion of the April 2018 season, there were some developments in Shareholder Activism during meetings, one of which was widely-publicized. In an unprecedented move, the Singapore Exchange called for one listed-company to hold a new EGM due to inaccuracies in the submission of information for the meeting and shareholder disputes relating to the conduct of the original EGM.

NUS Business School Associate Professor Lawrence Loh, who is also a director at the Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations, made the following comments on SGX RegCo’s unprecedented move –

“It reflects the increasing trend by the regulator to be more interventionist when something is amiss, and willing to take on company-specific action. This more direct approach in regulating companies is much preferred than spraying across the horizon, without actually targeting or hitting anyone specific.”

For more information on BoardRoom’s Shareholder Meeting Services, please contact us at info@boardroomlimited.com or drop me a text via LinkedIn!