The paranormal Netflix drama Stranger Things completed its final season at the end of last year. The series is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, in the US, which is described as "the town where nothing ever happens" in the second season, despite alien abductions, portals to another world, and secret government experiments.
Stranger things have also happened at ASL Marine, a Singapore-based company where three fatal accidents have claimed over 20 lives at its affiliates and associates in Indonesia in less than a year, as per the company’s own public filings.
Meanwhile, strangely, the stock price of Singapore-listed ASL Marine has risen another 50 per cent since the second accident last October. Neither the independent directors nor the minority shareholders in this listed company appear to be doing anything in public to hold the controlling Ang family accountable for its deadly safety record, which in any normal company would likely lead to the resignation of senior leaders, if not the CEO himself.
If they are speaking up and demanding change at ASL, we would welcome the opportunity to report on how improvements are being made, since the company’s presentations are silent on the deadly accidents, as if they never happened. Key highlights as per the recent investor slideshow presentation at the SGX-DBS Jewels of Singapore Corporate Day include a headline about an “integrated and synergistic business model” and, “deleveraging milestones,” rather than, “fatal accident at our yard killed 14 and triggered criminal investigation.” Strange, that.
Back in October, we observed that one of the company’s three independent board directors is Mr Adrian Wong Soon Peng, who is also an equity partner at leading Singaporean shipping law firm Rajah and Tann. We noted that it, “is unfortunate that such a distinguished law firm should have one of its leaders serving on the board of a company where so many people have been killed in two serious accidents at its shipyard in Indonesia in just four months still stands. Is this the kind of image any major law firm wants to be associated with? It certainly doesn’t look great.”
It took nearly two weeks for ASL to issue a statement of regret and condolence to the families of the deceased in October. Now there has been another deadly incident, and the optics looks even worse.
In March, there was a third fatal accident when, in the words of ASL’s terse stock exchange release, “one of the [tugs] owned by the group’s associate company was recently involved in a marine incident in Indonesia, where the [tug] capsized under adverse weather conditions. There are five fatalities and one injured who is currently receiving medical care.”
Again, not a peep in public from the Singapore media, from the independent directors, nor from investors about another five deaths at an associate of ASL. We should emphasise that no wrongdoing by any party is implied by these comments, that no one has been charged in conjunction with the unfortunate sinking of the unnamed vessel, and that we have seen no independent report issued by the Indonesian Directorate General of Sea Transportation as maritime authority into the causes of the sinking and the five deaths.
In March after the loss of the tug, ASL’s board issued the following comment:
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident and extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of those affected. The group is coordinating closely with the vessel’s operator to render all necessary assistance to the affected victims and their families during this difficult time. Investigation into the marine incident is ongoing to determine the cause.”
Since there is an investigation ongoing, we hope that the board will publish it in full when it is finally released, and we will advise what changes it has made to its marine operating procedures to prevent a recurrence, and what lessons have been learned.
The company is making steady profits and can afford to invest in better safety procedures, improved standard and higher training. ASL reported a profit of SG$25.4 million (US$19.9 million) for the nine months to March 31, 2026, a rise of 175 per cent on the same period a year earlier.
However, we would have expected a more robust response in public from the company on what it is doing to improve a dreadful safety record amongst associate and affiliate companies in Indonesia.
ASL is controlled by members of the local Ang family. The Ang family collectively holds around 67 per cent of the company’s shares. Last Friday, ASL had a market capitalisation of US$275 million, giving the family more than US$183 million of value in their holdings in the company.
The only party seeming willing to hold the company accountable is the public prosecutor in Batam who has placed seven ASL managers and supervisors in detention in Indonesia as per local news coverage.
Again, in any normal company listed elsewhere in a major stock market, the news that seven staff were in detention for breaching Article 359 of the Indonesian Criminal Code concerning negligence causing death, Article 360 of the Criminal Code concerning negligence causing injury, and/or Law Number One of 1970 concerning Occupational Safety might warrant a stock exchange disclosure. Six have been transferred to prison in May.
But the silence is endemic. A stranger thing, too?
The Straits Times, Singapore’s leading news publication, did not cover the detentions, either. Credit to Channel News Asia, which ran a great 22-minute video about safety in Singapore’s marine industry titled “Safety by Choice, not by Chance” highlighting that there was only one fatality in the marine industry in Singapore in 2025, down from five in 2024.
So, in its one shipyard in Batam, ASL had a fatality rate nineteen times higher than the entire marine industry in the whole of Singapore last year. If safety is a choice, as Channel News Asia claimed, then ASL Marine has made some bad choices.
The nationalities of the suspects are not clear, although one is Korean as per Tempo, Kim Dong Gyun, who is unwell and is classified as elderly, so he is being held in the city, not the state prison.
The six other suspects detained in the detention centre have been named as Neo Ah Chye, Dranreb Ray, Abdulah Bin Ismail, Mijrebel Siregar, Ricardo Parlindungan, and Basar Samuel.
The background to the criminal case is the second of a pair of fatal accidents at ASL’s shipyard in Batam, Indonesia, which we covered at the time. In June last year, an explosion ripped through the 1990-built, 95,759DWT floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) Federal II whilst alongside for afloat repairs in ASL Marine’s yard undergoing a special survey. This blast killed five workers (our initial report stated there were four who died immediately, while the Indonesian press claimed that a fifth died later).
Then, on October 15, at around 04:00 local time, another deadly explosion tore apart the same FSO alongside in the same ASL shipyard. The final death toll from this explosion was 14 dead, all of whom were workers at the yard. The incident triggered protests and demonstrations outside the company’s facilities in Batam.
Our headline last year about the second explosion was that, “investors don’t care, boards are weak, and the families likely get peanuts.” I suspect that this remains true.
ASL’s proud presentation to investors in April stated that the company was, “Revitalised. Resilient. Ready.” Based on three fatal accidents and 24 known deaths in less than a year amongst its own staff, crew and subcontractors, we would argue that perhaps the next ASL update should open with the tagline, “Deadly. Dire. Detained.”