SINGAPORE—Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering will be simplifying its portfolio into commercial and defense divisions, replacing the sector-centric aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine entities.

The restructure, designed to make the company more “industry facing and customer oriented,” will become effective Jan. 1.

Within the new commercial division, the units will be urban solutions, satellite communications and commercial aerospace; the latter covering aerostructure and systems, MRO and aviation asset management. The defense counterpart will cover air, land and sea systems as well as digital and cyberspace solutions.

Jeffrey Lam, the current president of the aerospace sector, will be re-profiled as president and head of commercial aerospace.

ST Engineering will also set up a group engineering center to work alongside the group innovation office to develop emerging technologies, such as smart MRO, autonomous system-of-systems and video analytics.

“The environment today is one where technological advancements and shifting customer demands are catalyzing disruptive business models and rapidly transforming the competitive landscape. The time is now right for us to create a sharper and more agile organization that will be highly attuned and responsive to our customers’ needs in the new world,” ST Engineering president and CEO Vincent Chong said in a statement.

Within the third quarter, the aerospace sector secured contracts worth S$600 million ($438 million) for nacelle and floor panel manufacturing, adding to the S$2 billion of new orders secured over the first nine months. 

The company said that it is pursuing more passenger-to-freighter conversion opportunities as the continuation of limited belly hold capacity is sustaining demand for dedicated freighters. ST Engineering said it is the only MRO provider that provides A320 family P2F conversion, and is expanding the conversion line to China and the U.S. by 2022. The company added that domestic traffic rebound in the region also plays well to its narrowbody MRO work. 

For the full fiscal 2020, ST Engineering expects its revenue to be close to the midpoint of its August estimate—5%-15% lower than FY2019’s revenue of S$7.86 billion.