How a 77-year-old Singapore CEO fixed a US$100 mil blunder

SINGAPORE (Dec 20): In 2015, Yao Hsiao Tung was 75 and looking to slow down. He’d begun seeking his successor as chief executive officer of Hi-P International Ltd., a contract manufacturer for customers including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. But an annual loss, and the US$126 million claim that Hi-P filed because of it, ended that plan.

The self-professed troubleshooter attributes the company’s first red ink since listing on Singapore’s stock exchange mostly to one big error that he oversaw. Its electronics unit took on a contract to co-design and produce a dual-screen smartphone for Yota Devices Ltd. without doing enough due diligence. The Moscow-based firm didn’t take delivery of the phones, according to Yao. Yota couldn’t be reached for comment.

Two years -- and, according to Hi-P, about $100 million in losses -- later, the company is heading for its largest annual profit on record, helped by its work for Apple. Its shares have more than tripled in 2017, which is by far the biggest gain on the FTSE Straits Times All Share Index.

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