From there, she entered the aviation industry, spending three years in Beijing working with airlines. After returning to Singapore, Tan started her own business. “Initially, we were doing a variety of things. However, from 1996 till our IPO in 2003, we decided just to stay focused on the aviation industry and gave up the rest of the business segments.”
With her sister Jenny Tan Lay Yong, co-founder and executive director of the company, she brought A-Sonic to a listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in September 2003. The IPO price was set at 26.5 cents per share with an initial market capitalisation of $75 million. In the latest SGX filing dated May 6, Tan holds a 65.65% stake in the company.
Speaking on how responsibilities are divided, Tan says she was essentially the front-line person while her sister handled operations. “She takes care of all kinds of deliveries and the overall operations, while I was visiting customers and trying to secure business for the company. In the beginning, I used to travel a lot to the likes of China, the US and Europe. The cumulative travelling duration can run up to six months on a yearly basis.”
That front-facing role, she adds, shaped her management style. She also admits that she can be quite strict at work. “I do demand from our people to perform. But when it comes to fun, I am all but ok with it; we can all have fun together.”
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A-Sonic leans on logistics for growth
Today, A-Sonic and its subsidiaries operate in two areas of business, mainly aviation and logistics. Under the A-Sonic aviation solution, it is involved in the purchase and sale of aircraft components, while the A-Sonic logistics solution covers logistics, which includes air and ocean freight, warehousing, transportation and air cargo terminal handling. As at Dec 31, 2025, the company has a staff strength of approximately 557 and operates in 28 cities across 14 countries, including the US, Canada, Dubai, China and Australia.
For the logistics segment, Tan says that her current plan is to continue building logistics volume here in Asia, as well as the US and Europe. “Especially long-haul routes like the US and Europe, these are giving us better margins and rates. Also, by building up our volume, this will help the company to secure better pricing and bargaining power,” says Tan.
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Apart from building volume, Tan also prefers to enter into long-term contracts with her customers to build certainty for the company. According to her, a typical long-term contract averages around five years. “We like repeat customers with long-term contracts so that we can grow together as partners.”
In the recent FY2025 results, A-Sonic’s logistics business unit registered a profit before tax of around US$4.6 million ($5.8 million), while its aviation business unit incurred a small loss before tax of US$358,000.
“For the losses at our aviation business unit, it is still a relatively small amount, and we will be looking to scale up the business at the right opportunity to turn around the unit,” says Tan.
Meanwhile, she believes logistics will never go out of fashion, as cargo cannot move itself and will always rely on logistics companies to move goods across the globe. The recent conflict in Iran, however, has pushed up oil prices, putting pressure on corporate costs. She notes that while companies cannot fully pass on these increases to customers, contractual arrangements allow for partial pass-through, with costs benchmarked against specified indices to determine the recoverable amount.
Moving into logistics tech
While the company remains focused on its logistics and aviation segments, it has also begun expanding into information technology (IT). On Feb 3, it announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, A-Sonic SCM, had entered into a binding joint venture agreement to acquire a 55% equity interest in RES Malaysia (RES), a Malaysian IT company.
“The logistics industry is undergoing rapid digital transformation, and our customers increasingly expect integrated solutions that combine physical logistics execution with digital visibility, automation and data intelligence,” she says. Through the joint venture with RES, she believes that A-Sonic can accelerate its ability to offer digital supply chain visibility, workflow optimisation and recurring service models that complement its logistics operations.
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“This joint venture strengthens our competitiveness and positions us for the next phase of growth as our long-term strategy is to evolve from a traditional logistics provider into a technology-enabled supply chain solutions group,” Tan adds.
She hopes that by strengthening A-Sonic’s competitiveness, the company will be able to improve operational productivity in its logistics-related business and achieve cost savings.
“I will also want to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into our systems, whenever feasible,” adds Tan. She admits that building a full-stack logistics technology platform internally would take a timeline of between three and five years and require significant investment. “RES already has proven products, an established customer base and domain expertise in mobility, automation and workflow systems. This will give us the capability and market access almost immediately.”
On the acquisitions front, Tan believes that the cash pile sitting on the company’s balance sheet allows them to consider strategic acquisitions, especially during these turbulent times. As at Dec 31, 2025, A-Sonic was in a net cash position of US$45.86 million.
“We have identified numerous potential acquisition targets and will try to shortlist two potential targets that are focused on end-to-end logistics. Hopefully, we can see through it by the end of this year,” says Tan.
While she wishes to do more in terms of acquisitions, she believes that it takes time to integrate the acquisition target into the existing business of A-Sonic and therefore she would rather take it at a slower pace to ensure stability.
As for picking the acquisition targets, Tan says that some of the criteria include the geographical focus and the type of logistics and supply chain that they are in. “Some of these targets can be operationally strong in either air, land or sea, and these are different segments of the logistics industry. Therefore, we have to see which one is the best fit for A-Sonic.”
Share buybacks and spin-offs
While the idle cash pile remains on its balance sheet for potential acquisitions, Tan has recently begun deploying part of it through a series of share buybacks in a bid to narrow the valuation gap.
With a share price of 55.5 Singapore cents and a net asset value (NAV) of 47.91 US cents, this translates to a price-to-book ratio of 0.9 times. For the past six months, the share price has seen a gain of 65%.
Furthermore, A-Sonic’s net cash position of $58.53 million versus its current market capitalisation of $57.46 million means that the market has assigned a negative value to its business operations, which has generated US$3.37 million in profit after tax in FY2025.
“Our share price has been trading at a discount to our NAV for the longest time. Therefore, through these frequent share buyback transactions, we hope to bridge the gap between our share price and our book value,” says Tan.
Recently, analysts have begun taking a closer look at A-Sonic. On April 1, Paul Chew from PhillipCapital issued a non-rated report on the company. While no target price and recommendation were stated in his report, he says that A-Sonic’s working capital requirements have been minimal or negative over the past five years, with payables exceeding receivables. “A-Sonic is trading at attractive valuations with net cash that has been stable, averaging US$45 million per year over the past five years,” Chew adds. He foresees that with the cash hoard, A-Sonic can undertake earnings accretive tuck-in acquisitions and help to boost its scale and enable spin-offs in the future.
As for potential spin-offs, Tan says that any such corporate action will be highly dependent on the performance of the companies within A-Sonic. “Why do I think that spin-offs are important? While it can help to increase our company’s value, I also believe that post spin-offs, the entity could grow on its own and could even be a household name.”
Growth strategy overview
Looking ahead, A-Sonic will adopt a multi-pronged growth strategy. “First, we will be looking at internal growth, which is really to increase our customer base and network by securing long-term contracts. Second, on the inorganic growth front, we will also undertake any potential acquisitions and joint venture partnerships. Third, of course, we will be looking at any potential spin-offs as well to drive our growth,” adds Tan.
The company is also looking to expand further into Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, which are fast-growing countries with a combined population of approximately 424 million people.
“At the end of the day, we will continue to put in efforts to create value for all of our shareholders,” she adds.
