Under The Radar

Helping energy firms extract oil in remote areas and in deeper waters in a more pocket friendly manner. That’s exactly what our guest for today does.  Founded in 1990, SGX mainboard-listed Dyna-Mac is a global multi-disciplinary contractor who undertakes the detailed engineering, procurement, and construction of modules and facilities in vessels widely used in the oil and gas industry.  One of them is the FPSO (floating production storage and offloading vessel). This is a ship that could be used to store treated crude oil produced in remote areas and offload them to tankers that transport them to refineries.  Such vessels eliminate the need to transport crude oil through fixed pipes, thereby making it economically viable for energy companies to extract oil in less accessible areas and deeper waters. Meanwhile, Dyna-Mac recently secured several contracts worth a total provisional sum of S$88 million from repeat customers, bringing its net order book to S$630.7 million. But how does the firm assess its financial performance?  On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Lim Ah Cheng, Executive Chairman and CEO, Dyna-Mac.

If you have not been to the movies of late, this conversation is probably a hint for you to do so.  But if you’ve been to the cinemas of late, chances are you might have watched the Barbie Movie, Oppenheimer or the latest instalment of the Mission:Impossible franchise, the Dead Reckoning Part 1.  Speaking of which, beyond the cast and directors, have you ever wondered what made the movies come to life? What about the visual system that makes the iconic pink colour pop in the Barbie Movie. Or the immersive sound system that makes you feel the blast in Oppenheimer or that car chase in Mission Impossible?  Our guest for today is Dolby Laboratories. The firm works with artists, storytellers and businesses to revolutionise entertainment and communications with its visual and audio systems such as the Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision and Dolby Cinema.  But how does this work exactly, and are these players considered at Dolby Laboratories, customers or partners? Also, what are some of the products in its pipeline for this year and the next? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Ashim Mathur, Vice President, APAC, Dolby Laboratories.

If you don’t know something, just Google it!  While Google started out as the name of a search engine company, the word has become almost synonymous with the act of looking something up online. Beyond that, the tech firm has made itself into all parts of our lives. Some of us use Gmail for emails, Google docs for crafting documents, and Google Drive for cloud storage.  Not to mention the Android operating system that some of our phones use, and the YouTube app that we stream our videos from.  In fact, Google has 15 products that each serve over half a billion people and businesses, and six that serve more than 2 billion users too. But it wasn't that long ago when such conveniences were not available. In fact Google was founded just 25 years ago, and is way younger than a number of industrial firms that we spoke with on the show. So what was Google’s journey like throughout the past quarter century? What went ‘Under the Radar’ over the past 25 years?  And how does Google intend to take itself forward in the next 25 years, with the advent of Generative AI? How does it assess its peers’ investments into AI startups? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Ben King, Managing Director, Google Singapore.

Taking an elevator or escalator has probably become an integral part of our lives, but the companies behind them often go unnoticed. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. Founded in 1910, KONE is a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry. It provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors as well as solutions which can add value to the life cycle of any building.  The firm has been present in Singapore since 1978 and is now one of the fastest growing elevator and escalator companies in the country, with its solutions present in major malls and infrastructure such as the Marina Bay Sands, the Circle Line and Jem.  It is also diversifying beyond escalators and elevators to integrate robots in buildings. For one thing, the firm collaborated with Changi General Hospital and CapitaLand Investment to advance the integration of robotics in buildings.  Question is – why is Kone diversifying beyond its traditional lines of business amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution?  In the meantime, the firm had in July reported lower than expected second-quarter order numbers due to weather demand in its key Chinese market as low construction activity continues to weigh on demand for new elevators and escalators. But what is the situation like in Singapore? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Sylvia Koh-Gratton, Managing Director, KONE Singapore.

The VC investment landscape is back with focus as we speak to the venture arm of one of Japan’s largest consumer credit companies, Credit Saison.  Called Saison Capital, the corporate venture arm invests in Pre-Seed to Series B companies with a focus on Southeast Asia and India.  While the firm is sector agnostic, it likes to work with founders that are building platforms or ecosystems that have the potential to distribute financial services to the underbanked.  Question is, what expertise does Saison Capital want to provide to startups and how does that influence the companies it invests in? Meanwhile, data from Pitch Book showed venture capital funding globally almost halved in the first six months of 2023, despite the earlier artificial intelligence frenzy. Are VCs running out of dry powder or are they just merely not investing? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Qin En Looi, Partner, Saison Capital.

We’ve talked about electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts on the show. They come in the form of flying cars, air taxis or even delivery drones.  But just like how cars need to be parked at car parks or garages, and how aeroplanes need to stay at airports, flying cars and delivery drones also need to be parked somewhere once they reach their destinations.  Our guest for today designed the equivalent of car parks for such aircrafts.  Founded in 2019, Urban-Air Port designs, develops, manufactures, sells and operates ground, air and digital infrastructure.  More notably, the firm had in April last year opened what it calls the world’s first fully operational urban air-port and charging hub for eVTOL vehicles in Coventry in the UK  to spearhead a new age of zero-emission, low-congestion urban transport.  With Mordor Intelligence estimating the urban air mobility market to grow to US$36.75 billion by 2035, how lucrative is it for players to build hubs that specifically caters to this category of aerial vehicles?  And how will the competitive landscape change in the near term? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Andrea Wu, CEO, Urban-Air Port.

This company will certainly ring a bell for those who’ve been keeping an eye on the movers on the Singapore exchange.  Our guest for today is DFI Retail Group, or a leading pan-Asian retailer that owns the Cold Storage and Giant chains of supermarkets, Guardian pharmacies and 7-Eleven convenience stores here in Singapore. At a group level, DFI Retail operates over 10,500 outlets in 13 countries and territories and has a workforce of over 216,000 people.  It returned to the black with a net profit of US$8 million for the first half of this year, after logging a net loss of US$58 million in the previous year.  But to what extent does this reflect improved household spending, particularly on food and groceries?  On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Yoep Man, Managing Director, Food, Singapore, DFI Retail Group,  who is in charge of DFI Retail Group’s food and supermarket business.

Today we’re going to talk about a company that supplies steel pipes, tie rods, as well as crane rails for waterfront, underground and even rail projects.  Founded in 2011, Mlion Corporation is a foundation solutions company that focuses on port and waterfront developments, civil excavation and power generation related infrastructure in Asia.   It also adds value to the supply chain by providing downstream services such as warehousing, storage and logistics to access local markets.  Think of the landmark Apple Store at Marina Bay Sands Waterfront, the T235 Viaduct and Tunnels for the RTS Link to Johor Bahru, and the Thomson East Coast Line. These are all projects that Mlion had taken part in previously.  And with offices in Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Timor Leste, which is the biggest market for Mlion financially?  Meanwhile, steel prices have plunged as more Chinese producer export the commodity. So what does this mean for Mlion in terms of the cost and selling price of its products? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Eric Leong, Chairman & CEO, Mlion Corporation to share more about the business with us. 

Let us put on our lab coats and head over to the chemistry lab today! That’s probably what you may have heard years ago as a student. Why am I bringing this up? Well, I’m bringing this up because our guest for today is New York Stock Exchange-listed Waters Corporation, or a global leader that makes analytical instruments and software used in scientific laboratories.   Founded in 1958, Water Corporation serves a wide range of customers including those from the pharmaceutical, food and environment sciences as well as design and development industries. Its instruments and software ensure the safety of the medicines we take, the purity of the food and water we consume, and the quality and durability of products we use every day.  Waters Corporation has over 8,200 employees worldwide, and operations in over 35 countries. But what is its scale within Singapore, and how does it assess its growth in the coming years?  On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian found out more about Waters Corporation’s diverse business lines from David Curtin, Vice President Asia Pacific, Waters Corporation.

It has been slightly more than six months since our interview with Tapestry, or the fashion group behind Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman.  A lot has happened since then. Perhaps the most important development of all is Tapestry’s US$8.5 billion acquisition of its competitor Capri Holdings in August.  Capri, as we know, owns the brands Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors.  Tapestry says the acquisition brings together six highly complementary brands with global reach, powered by Tapestry’s data-rich customer engagement platform, and diversified, direct-to-consumer operating model.  Just to give you a sense of how big the combined company is – it generated global annual sales in excess of US$12 billion with a presence in over 75 countries and achieved nearly $2 billion in adjusted operating profit in the prior fiscal year. But what are the financial reasons behind acquiring Capri? What will the mega fashion merger look like operationally?  And how will the creation of a US fashion powerhouse position Tapestry against larger European rivals such as LVMH? On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian sat down with  Yann Bozec, President, Tapestry Asia Pacific; Chief Executive Officer & President, Coach China for more.