SINGAPORE (Nov 21): ST Engineering  has appointed several senior management executives to new positions to shore up its leadership team.

Lee Fook Sun, 58, current president of ST Electronics and president of ST Engineering's defence business, has been named deputy CEO of the Mainboard-listed company.

"In this new position, he will explore additional synergies across the group's four business sectors," ST Engineering said in a statement this morning.

Vincent Chong Sy Feng, 45, current president for strategic plans and business development at ST Aerospace, will become deputy CEO for corporate development, overseeing ST Engineering's corporate functions.

Lim Serh Ghee, 55, current chief operating officer and president of ST Aerospace's defence business, will be appointed president of ST Aerospace, a unit now overseen by ST Engineering CEO Tan Pheng Hock.

The appointments take effect from Dec 1.

"The appointments of Fook Sun and Vincent as deputy CEOs and Serh Ghee as president, ST Aerospace are part of the group’s ongoing efforts to develop senior management staff to hold key positions within the Group," said Tan.

"As we chart our growth plans, it is imperative that we continue to leverage synergies across the four sectors and better integrate our corporate functions."

The new appointments come two weeks after ST Engineering surprised investors with a weaker-than-expected set of 3Q2014 results and said its 2014 pre-tax profit would be lower than last year's.

It blamed the results on a slowdown in its core aviation business, which is being hit by reduced demand for aircraft maintenance and repair services due to weak economic conditions in Europe.

The 3Q2014 results and 2014 profit warning triggered a slew of analyst downgrades and sent its share price diving.

This week, Temasek Holdings disclosed that it had increased its stake in ST Engineering to 51.07% from 50.96%.

Through its wholly owned unit Vestal Investments, Temasek bought 3.4 million ST Engineering shares on Nov 14 from the market for about $11.8 million.

ST Engineering shares fell 1.5% to $3.35 yesterday.