M1 continued to maintain its active involvement and significant investment in the community. In supporting the various causes and activities, M1 engaged and built relations with the different segments of Singapore society, demonstrating its care, concern and commitment towards responsible corporate citizenry.

Amongst others, the arts, sports and charities benefited from M1’s corporate support. Charity projects supported by M1 also received active contributions and participation from M1 employees, customers and business partners.

M1’s established sponsorship programmes contributed to an interesting and exciting year in the Singapore arts calendar. The ever-popular Cirque du Soleil from Montreal, Canada thrilled Singaporeans with another spectacular production in Quidam. Our longstanding but evolving partnership with local theatre company, The Necessary Stage, resulted in the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival which made its debut to highly positive acclaim. And another continuing arts partnership between M1 and the National Arts Council saw the launch of the inaugural Noise Festival. For this and other involvement in the arts, M1 was bestowed the Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award.

In schools, the M1 Rugby Series remained a key event of the Singapore Rugby Union, popularising the sport amongst students. The many categories of the competition, which involved both touch and contact rugby, enjoyed healthy levels of participation from primary, secondary and junior college students.

M1 took its corporate philanthropy and volunteerism practices and programmes to another level during the year. As part of a new initiative, four children’s charities – Beyond Social Services, Club Rainbow, Salvation Army (Children’s Home) and CARE – were “adopted” and a formal structure put in place to administer these and other charity-related activities.

Members of the M1 SunCare Club – M1 employee volunteers’ group – and many other M1 employees had a very busy and successful year organizing social and fundraising activities for beneficiaries of the four adopted charities. Such activities also provided great opportunities for warm and meaningful interaction between members of the M1 family and their “ adopted siblings” from the charities.

Through its corporate and customer donation programmes as well as fundraising events such as golf tournament and a carnival that were keenly supported by our business partners and employees respectively, M1 raised about S$400,000 for the various charities and projects.

People are the building blocks of M1, and M1 believes in bringing out the best in our employees through constant training and development.

Putting beliefs into practice, M1 has a pool of internal trainers within the Customer Service and M1 Shop departments, where frontline staff are being constantly trained and groomed to provide quality service to customers.

In the Customer Service department, a 3-week training programme is provided to every new staff who comes aboard. This equips them with the necessary product knowledge and customer handling skills required. As they progress in their careers, competency-based programmes such as Handling Difficult Customers, Creative Problem- Solving and Interpersonal Skills are provided to further enhance their skills. For staff with supervisory roles, their people management skills is honed with specialised training in coaching and counseling, along with other performance management tools.

M1 Shop has adopted a customer-centric approach, which identifies and focuses on elevating the service level culture through a campaign titled "All Heart, All Smiles". Under this campaign, regular morning briefings and classroom training are conducted to equip staff with the relevant skills and attitude to better serve customers. In addition, staff’s knowledge on mobile technology and 3G products is enhanced through Data Communications training.

Moving forward, M1’s staff will remain an invaluable asset to its growth and success, and M1 will continuously invest in them to develop them to their fullest potential.

M1 remains committed to maintaining open communications with shareholders, analysts and interested parties, and encouraging engagement with its senior management.

During the year, M1 continued to release quarterly, interim and full-year results to the public within 21 days of period end, and all materials relating to results and presentations were immediately made available on our website, after mandatory posting with the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Presentations, followed by question and answer sessions, were also held on the same day of every results’ announcement, including face-to-face briefings conducted jointly for analysts and the media for half and full-year results.

As at end December 2005, the free float^ of M1 shares was 47% with the majority shares continued to be held by institutional investors across Asia, UK and USA. As such, senior management’s time is focused accordingly. For year 2005, M1 undertook two roadshows covering Hong Kong, UK and USA, and participated in three investor conferences – one in Hong Kong, and two in Singapore. In addition, M1 participated in an SGX Investment Seminar and presented to over 300 private investors, followed with a question and answer session.

Through the Investor Relations team, M1 responded to enquiries from shareholders, analysts and other interested parties. Shareholders are encouraged to make use of M1 Investor Relations’ website at (www.m1.com.sg) for corporate information and the latest update on the Company. During the year, the website was revamped and is now more appealing, comprehensive and user-friendly. Apart from the usual timely update on news, results, event calendar and annual reports, new additions include an on-demand audio webcast of our most recent half-year results’ briefing as well as a web (html) version of our latest annual report.

M1’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), held on 31 March 2005, provided shareholders the opportunity to ask questions of the board, including the chairmen of the audit, remuneration and nomination committees.

M1 is committed to creating long-term value for our shareholders, and therefore, continues to favour a sustainable dividend policy and will strive to return excess cash to shareholders in absence of value-enhancing opportunities.

In line with this approach, M1 announced an increased dividend payout ratio to 80% of FY2005 net profit after tax, up from 70% in the previous year. In addition, a special dividend of S$120 million or 12.2 cents per share has been proposed. On a per share basis, this will translate to a total declared payout of 25.3 cents for FY2005, compared to 21.7 cents for FY2004.

In terms of total shareholder return (comprising capital gains plus cash distributions made in the year), M1’s return to shareholders for year 2005 was 22.4% on amount invested at the start of the same year, compared to 27.1% for year 2004.