How a 77-Year-Old Singapore CEO Fixed a S$100 Million Blunder
- Hi-P had first loss as a customer didn’t take product delivery
- Yao led a turnaround; stock has more than tripled this year
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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 $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.