Singtel-owned Optus names Stephen Rue as CEO

Singtel’s Australian unit Optus said on May 6 it had appointed Mr Stephen Rue as chief executive officer, replacing former boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, as the firm seeks to reset its strategy and rebuild customer trust.

Ms Rosmarin resigned in November after a 12-hour network blackout affected more than 10 million Australians. Australia’s second-largest telecom operator also faced a massive cyber attack in 2022 which led to millions of customers’ personal data being exposed.

Mr Rue has been running Australia’s government-owned National Broadband Network (NBN) since 2018 and was previously its finance chief. He was at the helm of rolling out the firm’s broadband network and expanding internet access to Australians.

“An appointment of new CEO at Optus has been well-awaited by the market. Mr Rue does not seem to have a mobile business background but has a sound financial expertise in running Australian businesses,” DBS analyst Sachin Mittal said.

Rue has worked with government-owned NBN as its finance chief previously and had been at the helm of rolling out the firm’s broadband network and expanding internet access to Australians.

Singtel group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said in a statement: “Optus has been part of the Singtel stable for two decades and remains a strategic long-term commitment.”

Mr Rue and the board “will work together to reset strategy and rebuild customer trust in the Optus brand”, the statement said.

Mr Michael Venter will remain interim CEO until Mr Rue takes over in November.

“Hopefully he (Rue) can address low return on invested capital (ROIC) challenge at Optus,” Mr Mittal said.

“Our view is that Singtel need to raise ROIC at Optus via higher efficiencies rather than pursuing an aggressive market share growth.”

Optus has been looking to expand its market share locally, with a recent deal with Australia’s leading telecom firm TPG Telecom to create a regional multi-operator core network.

Separately, SingTel last week flagged it would report a net loss for the second half of fiscal 2024, citing non-cash impairment provisions of $3.1 billion, of which about $2 billion was for Optus’ goodwill.

Singtel shares closed unchanged at $2.38 on May 6. Straits Times