Smrt Background of Company

At the time of independence, Singapore’s public transport services were made up of multiple small operators, resulting in a highly fragmented market. The cut-throat competition by these private companies led to poor service & low safety standards and due to a lack of integration and network economies, many of these companies eventually were on the brink of bankruptcy.

Singapore government then moved in a team of civil servants, nationalised the fragmented companies and as time progresses brought about great improvements to the public transport services. By the mid-1980s, the development of the MRT system was in place and this introduced competition for the listed Singapore bus Services (SBS) who was the dominant player in the mass transport market. By the mid-1990s, Singapore’s public transport services were provided by 2 multi-modal Public Transport Operators (PTOs), namely ComfortDelgro, the parent of SBS Transit as well as SMRT Corporation (“SMRT”).

SMRT Trains Ltd was launched in 1987 and it operates the first mass rapid transit system in Singapore. Since its launch, the company grew steadily, and expanded over the years to form SMRT Corporation Ltd which was incorporated on 6 March 2000 and was listed on the Singapore Exchange (“SGX”) on 26 July 2000. The company enjoys an annual turnover of approximately S$1.1 billion and has total assets of more than S$2.5 billion.

SMRT is a Singapore-based premier multi-modal land transport provider and their core businesses are in rail operations, maintenance & engineering as well as bus, taxi and automotive services. The company also engages in complementary integrated business in retail, media & marketing, property and retail management.

Here are the details of SMRT’s operating segments:

(i) rail operations which consists of mass rapid transit (“MRT”) and light rail system (“LRT”) ;