SINGAPORE — The criminal prosecution of Hyflux founder and former chief executive Olivia Lum, one of Singapore's most closely watched corporate trials, wrapped up on September 29, closing a case that spanned 59 weeks and heard from 22 witnesses over 54 trial days.
Lum, 65, and five other former Hyflux leaders are accused of failing to disclose material information about the ill-fated Tuaspring integrated water and power project, in breach of Singapore Exchange listing rules. The trial began in August 2025 before Principal District Judge Toh Han Li. In all, the prosecution proceeded on 11 charges against the six defendants.
According to the prosecution, led by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Christopher Ong, Lum was determined to win the Tuaspring tender in 2011 and deliberately failed to tell the market that the project's profitability depended on selling electricity, a business Hyflux had never been in. The prosecution alleged she feared that such disclosure would scare off investors.
Hyflux had clinched the Tuaspring contract with the lowest submitted bid, proposing to sell water to national water agency PUB at a first-year tariff of 45 cents per cubic metre — undercutting its competitors by at least 27 per cent. The prosecution's case is that at that price, the desalination plant would operate at a loss, and the only way to make the project viable was to sell the vast majority of the electricity generated by its power plant to the national grid. Hyflux, a water company, had no prior experience in power generation, let alone selling electricity on the open market.
To fund the project, Hyflux turned to retail and institutional investors because it had difficulty securing bank loans. Court proceedings heard that DBS had floated the idea of issuing preference shares to raise funds in 2011. Lum faces two charges relating to her consent to Hyflux's omissions in SGX announcements and in a 2011 offer information statement for S$200 million of preference shares. If convicted, she faces up to seven years' jail and fines of up to S$250,000 per charge.
The witnesses called included former Hyflux staff who had been involved in preparing corporate announcements and documents, as well as bank representatives who negotiated Tuaspring's financing with the company.
The other defendants include Hyflux's former chief financial officer Cho Wee Peng and four former independent directors — Teo Kiang Kok, Gay Chee Cheong, Christopher Murugasu and Lee Joo Hai. Four Companies Act charges against Lum were stood down during the trial. One former independent director, Rajsekar Mitta, pleaded guilty earlier and was fined S$90,000.
Lum had once been among Singapore's most celebrated entrepreneurs — named Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011, the first woman to win the award — and built Hyflux into a flagship water company. But the Tuaspring gamble unravelled when electricity prices fell, and Hyflux was placed under judicial management in November 2020 before being wound up in 2021. About 34,000 holders of its perpetual securities and preference shares, who had sunk a combined S$900 million into the company, were left with nothing.
Separately, Hyflux's judicial managers have pursued a civil claim against Lum for damages exceeding S$690 million, alleging negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.
The defence, led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh of Davinder Singh Chambers, will indicate on October 21 whether it intends to submit that there is no case to answer. Legal observers say the trial's outcome will shape how Singapore polices disclosure obligations for listed companies and the duties owed to retail investors.