Boustead Singapore

Early history

Edward Boustead, an English businessman, founded Boustead & Co in 1828. The trading company specialised in import and export, offering goods such as banca tin, spices, saps, rattan, medicinal herbs, silk and tea widely available in South East Asia in exchange for Western products like cloth, oil and machinery.

With the development of a wide trading network in Singapore, trade credit and finance became increasingly important to banks, merchants, manufacturers and traders. Boustead & Co, being one of the largest trading houses of the Far East, was the first agent for Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Singapore, offering banking facilities, accepting and discounting bills, giving loans and accepting deposits.

Establishment of commodity markets

By 1899, Singapore had become the world's main exporter of tin. Boustead & Co played a leading role as promoter and investor in the tin smelting facility on Pulau Brani, constructed by the Straits Trading Company. From that point onwards, Straits Tin became one of the leading businesses of Boustead & Co.

During the late 1880s, Boustead & Co introduced rubber trees into Malaysia using seeds germinated by Sir Henry Wickham at London's Botanical Gardens located in Kew. Boustead & Co went on to be a leading rubber plantation manager and owner in Malaysia, acting as secretaries, registrars and agents for 49 plantations with a total planted area of 141,629 acres (573 km²).

The company played a pioneering role in the development of commodity markets for tin, oil, rubber and palm oil, among other commodities. All of these commodities played important roles in global development and industrialisation.

In 1892, Boustead handled the first shipment of bulk oil to Penang. Shortly after, the Shell Trading and Transport Company was formed. Isaac Henderson, a Boustead partner was one of the founding directors of the new company, now known simply as Shell. Boustead & Co represented Shell in its products including kerosene, motor spirit and fuel oil for shipping in Singapore and Penang, along with fabricating many installations for Shell's facility on Pulau Bukom.

Shipping and marketing business

By the 1960s, Boustead & Co entered the shipping and insurance business, to capture trading opportunities arising from the opening of the Suez Canal.

The company's shipping division was the largest in Singapore, with 1,000 vessels in port which represented 60 owners and handled 500,000 tonnes per year. Boustead represented over 20 major shipping lines and numerous insurance agencies including the renowned Lloyd's, which Boustead represented for more than one century.

Later on, the company diversified into businesses such as estate management, marketing and mining. The marketing division was the brand agent responsible for introducing some of the world's greatest brands to Singapore and the region. Boustead built a reputation as one of the most sought-after managing agencies of the Far East, and distributed and marketed brands such as Baileys, Bacardi, Cadbury's, Del Monte, Dornbracht, Dow Consumer Products, Dupont Corian, Gillette, Hennessy, Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical, Jacobs Manufacturing, Jim Beam, Jockey, Johnnie Walker, Kao, Lloyd's, Maidenform, Martini & Rossi, Moet & Chandon, Nestle, Nissan, Ovaltine, Pedigree, Poggenpohl, Procter & Gamble, Sandvik, Shell, Slazenger, Smirnoff, Speedo, Suzuki, Thomas Cook, Trebor and Villeroy & Boch.

War and restructuring

Due to major political changes in Malaya and Singapore, the period of 1957 to 1965 saw Boustead & Co divided into three separate companies in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Malaysia. Each company carried the same name and was listed on their respective stock exchanges. Boustead Singapore Limited was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange on 17 October 1975.

After the split, Boustead Singapore lost control of most of the assets and properties, which by default went to Malaysia due to their geographical presence. However, Boustead Singapore's trading arm held many contracts for the marketing and distribution of consumer goods, while the engineering division sought out new markets for its design and project management services. The company was able to grow its business, under the leadership of Boustead executives who had been with the company for a long time. The nature of the company's businesses in Singapore also began to change, with activities focused mainly on manufacturing and technical services.

New leadership

In 1996, Wong Fong Fui bought over Boustead Singapore, with the company centering its core operations on infrastructure-related engineering services and geo-spatial technology.

In 2013, the company delivered a new record net profit of S$81.4 million. The second highest net profit record set was S$70.7 million in 2014.

In 2009, the company recorded a seventh consecutive year of record-breaking revenue since its listing in 1975. The company achieved record revenue of S$560.6 million in 2011.

Establishment of Boustead College

In 2001, Boustead Singapore acquired a 49.9% shareholding in SGX-listed corporation, EasyCall International Limited. Between 2001 and 2003, Boustead Singapore set about transforming EasyCall from Asia's leading paging services corporation (in a sunset industry) into one of the most successful Sino-foreign education providers in China, through EasyCall's establishment and operation of the Tianjin University of Commerce Boustead College.

Boustead College's success as a university eventually attracted the interest of SGX-listed, Raffles Education Corporation Ltd, which went on to acquire the entire shareholding of EasyCall in 2007.

Prominent people associated with Boustead's history

Wealthy Malacca-born merchant, Chia Ann Siang joined Boustead & Co in 1848. During his time with Boustead & Co, he became a partner of the firm Geok Teat and Company. After working for 42 years, Chia decided to retire and went into the timber business. He was a wealthy landowner and a leading merchant in Singapore's history. Chia purchased a small hill which used to be the homes of clan associations and shophouses, named after himself as Ann Siang Hill.

Edward Boustead commissioned George Coleman, the Irish leading architect of Singapore at that time, to design and build the headquarters of Boustead & Co. The warehouse was known as the house of seven and twenty pillars", located around the corner from High Street.

In 1834, Boustead partnered with German-born merchant, Gustav Christian Schwabe in the Singapore company. Schwabe and his cousin established Sykes Schwabe & Co in Liverpool. The Liverpool partner would export products like textiles, biscuits, brandies and steel to the East, while the Singapore partner would trade with Eastern produce such as coffee and spices.

Singapore merchant, Tan Kim Seng, was a middleman in Boustead's trading activities. Tan was also a good friend of Edward Boustead. He helped to amass small shipments of produce from local traders for Boustead, who would then ship the produce to the West. Tan was well known for his contribution towards the building of Singapore's first public waterworks in 1857.

Boustead & Co had a successful investment business in commodities, ships and properties, bringing new companies to the London Stock Exchange and private investors. Edward Boustead himself was a trusted advisor to retirees who wanted to invest their retirement and pension funds. One of these retirees was Captain Thomas Douglas Scott who was master mariner of Laju, the largest and fastest sailing ship on the China Seas in the late 1800s.

Awards

Over two consecutive years in 2008 and 2009, Boustead was recognised in the prestigious Forbes Asia 200 Best Under A Billion as one of the Asia Pacific's 200 best public-listed corporations under US$1 billion in revenue.

Boustead received the Most Transparent Company Award (Runner-Up) in the Construction Category at the SIAS (Securities Investors Association of Singapore) Investors' Choice Awards 2009 and 2010.

The group's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Wong Fong Fui was awarded the Chief Executive Officer of the Year 2008 (market capitalisation of S$300 million to less than S$1 billion) at the Singapore Corporate Awards 2009.

Boustead was featured in the inaugural edition of Business Superbrands Singapore 2010, which pays tribute to the strongest and most valuable business-to-business brands in Singapore.

In 2011 and 2012, Boustead received the Friend of the Arts Award and Arts Supporter Award respectively from the National Arts Council of Singapore. The company was also awarded the Friend of the Heritage Award by the National Heritage Board of Singapore in 2012.

At the Singapore Business Federation's 10th anniversary gala dinner held in October 2012, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Wong Fong Fui received the inaugural Distinguished Partners Award for his contribution to the federation's business missions, as well as the Malaysia-Singapore Business Council.

180th anniversary

In 2008, Boustead Singapore held its 180th Anniversary in a year marked with a gala dinner attended by 800 guests, and which was honoured by the presence of Singapore's Senior Minister, Goh Chok Tong as Guest-of-Honour. In addition, a specially-commissioned 138-page anniversary book, Boustead 1828 was launched, along with a 10-minute corporate film that was shot across three continents, and a 28-page newspaper insert and 12-page supplementary in The Straits Times and The Business Times respectively.

Media

On 9 July 2012, major Asian news network Channel NewsAsia started to broadcast a series titled "The Centennials" showcasing a group of eight businesses in Singapore which are more than a hundred years old. Boustead Singapore was featured in the pilot episode of the series.

Group structure

Boustead's business divisions by category:

Downstream oil & gas

Boustead International Heaters designs, engineers and supplies process heater systems, waste heat recovery units, heat recovery steam generators and once through steam generators to the downstream oil & gas industries. Process heater systems are critical to the distillation and separation of crude oil and natural gas into the many petroleum products (e.g. asphalt, heavy bunker oil, diesel fuel, gasoline, kerosene, LPG, LNG, GTL) that the world uses today. The process heaters division has participated in projects related to Shell's Scotford Upgrader, the Canadian Oil Sands and the Pearl GTL project in Qatar.

Upstream oil & gas

Boustead Controls & Electrics designs, engineers and supplies process control systems and emergency/safety shutdown systems on oil & gas well platforms, production platforms and FPSOs.

Solid waste energy recovery

Boustead Maxitherm designs, engineers and constructs mini-power plants and solid waste energy recovery plants. The solid waste energy recovery plants are essentially mini-power plants have been developed with up to 20MW in capacity, which convert biomass, agro-industrial waste (e.g. oil palm kernels, rice husks, sugar bagasse, wood waste chips) and municipal waste into electricity.

Water & wastewater engineering

Boustead Salcon Water Solutions designs, engineers and constructs water and wastewater treatment plants for industrial applications. In the energy sector, the business division is an ion exchange specialist. Its industrial water and wastewater treatment plants (e.g. desalination, demineralisation, deionisation) are utilised to produce pure or ultra-pure water for process use and treat hazardous wastewater for safe discharge at power plants, oil refineries, gas processing plants, petrochemical plants, manufacturing plants, breweries and other process plants.

The division carried out the Phase II Extension for the Bedok NEWater Factory for the Public Utilities Board and completed the first seawater desalination plant in Singapore at Senoko Power Station.

Industrial real estate

Boustead Projects designs, builds and develops industrial facilities (e.g. logistics, manufacturing, office, R&D) and industrial parks for multinational corporations in industries ranging from aviation, biomedical, high-tech manufacturing to lifestyle and logistics, among others.

Boustead Projects has played a key role in building numerous industrial facilities within JTC Corporation's industrial parks including the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore and the knowledge-driven Paya Lebar iPark. Boustead Projects also delivered seven projects in Seletar Aerospace Park, a rapidly developing integrated aerospace hub in Singapore catering to global aerospace corporations which host and support aviation activities.

The industrial real estate division holds a portfolio of properties leased out to MNCs in the aviation, high-tech manufacturing and logistics industries.

Geo-spatial technology

Boustead is a major shareholder of subsidiaries Esri Australia and Esri South Asia. Esri Inc has a global market share of 40%, with over 350,000 organisations utilising Esri GIS solutions in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Geo-spatial technology applications include the management of homeland defence (e.g. anti-terrorism, police), natural resources (e.g. mining, oil & gas, timber), transportation networks (e.g. airports, ports, roads) and utility networks (e.g. power grids, water and sewage systems), among others.