10 events that made the headlines in Singapore

From the DBS leadership renewal to the Straits Times Index surging to a 17-year high, these are some events this year that captured headlines.

Failed Allianz-Income deal

G insurer Allianz announced on Dec 16 that it is scrapping its 1.5 billion euro (S$2.1 billion) offer to buy at least 51 per cent of the shares in Income Insurance.

Its offer had ignited public criticism as many voiced concerns on it detracting from Income’s social mission to provide affordable insurance to low-income workers. 

In October, the Singapore government also rejected the deal after assessing that it was not in the public’s interest for the proposed transaction to proceed in its initial form. However, it said it was open to the deal proceeding with new arrangements so long as the concerns raised were addressed. 

Tan Su Shan set to succeed Piyush Gupta as DBS’ CEO

Singapore’s largest lender will soon welcome its first female chief executive officer. Tan Su Shan, who is currently head of institutional banking at DBS, will replace Piyush Gupta next year. 

In August, Tan was named deputy chief executive ahead of her upcoming replacement of Gupta, who will retire at the bank’s next annual general meeting on Mar 28, 2025. 

The board said that the decision to appoint the 56-year-old – who has more than 35 years of experience in consumer banking, wealth management and institutional banking under her belt – was “unanimous”. 

Lawrence Wong becomes prime minister

Lawrence Wong was sworn in as prime minister on May 15, succeeding former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Wong, who entered Parliament in 2011 before being appointed as the minister of state for defence and education shortly after, has been in politics for 13 years.  

He was selected by peers in 2022 to be the leader of Singapore’s fourth-generation team after then deputy prime minster Heng Swee Keat announced in April 2021 that he was stepping down as presumptive PM-in-waiting due to his age, challenges of the pandemic and the heavy demands of the job. 

Max Maeder’s National Day Olympic bronze win

Kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder’s Olympic bronze was the city-state’s sole medal at this year’s Paris Games.

His Olympic win has earned him a coveted place among the ranks of Singapore’s Olympians – making him the sixth one in the nation’s sporting history. 

Just shy of 18 years at the time of his crowning achievement, Maeder is also the nation’s youngest Olympic medallist to date. 

Cordlife saga 

Private cord-blood bank Cordlife’s troubles over the mishandling of cord-blood units deepened in 2024.

Four directors and former group CEO Tan Poh Lan were arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department in March.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) had imposed a six-month suspension on the cord-blood bank in November 2023 that prohibited it from collecting, testing, processing and/or storing any new cord blood and human tissues after investigations revealed that it had inappropriately stored cord blood above acceptable temperature limits. 

MOH has since granted the cord-blood bank permission to resume cord-blood banking services “in a controlled manner” as of September.

Iswaran graft case 

Former transport minister S Iswaran was sentenced to 12 months in jail on Oct 3 after he pleaded guilty to five charges in September. 

The sentencing sets a precedent for a provision that has not been used in Singapore since independence: Section 165 of the Penal Code, which prohibits a public servant from accepting or obtaining anything of value for free or inadequate payment, from any person with whom they are involved in an official capacity.

OK Lim fraud case 

Beleaguered billionaire Lim Oon Kuin was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison on three charges of cheating and forgery after a 62-day trial that prosecutors said was one of Singapore’s most serious cases of trade financing fraud. 

The owner of the oil trading company Hin Leong, who initially faced 130 criminal charges of forgery and cheating involving a total sum of US$2.7 billion, said he would appeal his conviction.

STI surges to 17-year high 

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) surged to a 17-year high on Nov 8, climbing up 1.4 per cent or 50.88 points to 3,724.37. 

This came as the trio of local banking stocks rallied and soared to fresh records. Analysts have listed factors such as expectations that the US Federal Reserve might slow down the pace of interest rate cuts after the US presidential elections in particular. That is positive for the banks, which are STI heavyweights.

Job cuts 

A series of job cuts occurred this year. Here are a few:

• Carousell axed 76 jobs or 7 per cent of its total headcount across regional offices on Dec 6, citing the need to reallocate resources away from certain business areas to others that showed promise. Affected employees were given layoff packages including one month of salary for every year of service, with a minimum of three months’ salary.

• Healthtech startup Dr Anywhere in December announced it laid off around 45 or 8.1 per cent of its workforce in South-east Asia and Singapore. In 2023, Dr Anywhere posted a US$23.6 million operating loss on a US$62.1 million revenue.

• Beverage manufacturer Yeo Hiap Seng laid off 25 employees after Oatly’s closure of its Singapore manufacturing operations. That is in addition to the 34 Oatly workers affected by the closure, bringing the total to 59. The company said the affected workers had been hired specifically to support Oatly’s production at Yeo’s Senoko plant, and were retrenched as a direct result of Oatly ceasing its manufacturing in Singapore.

• Sea is cutting more jobs at e-commerce unit Shopee in Indonesia, Bloomberg reported in November, citing sources.

SingPost fires three C-suite execs

Singapore Post (SingPost) sacked three of its senior management staff as they were found to be negligent in the handling of internal investigations over a whistle-blower 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 Li Yu were terminated with immediate effect on Dec 21, 2024.