Stocks to watch: Auric Pacific Group, Ezra, First Sponsor Group

THE following stocks had developments or news that may influence trading on Tuesday:

A voluntary conditional cash offer of S$1.65 per offer share has been made to delist and privatise Auric Pacific Group, the mainboard-listed food manufacturing and retail company whose brands include Sunshine Bread and Buttercup.

The offer is made by Silver Creek Capital, an investment holding entity jointly owned by Stephen Riady and Andy Adhiwana. According to a filing made to the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday, the offer price is final.

Ezra Holdings said on early Tuesday that it had, on Monday, received a statutory demand from the solicitors of Forland Subsea in relation to a claim made by Forland against the company for the payment of about 25.5 million Norwegian krone (S$4.4 million).

The Singapore-listed offshore and marine group added that the statutory demand stated that if payment for the sum demanded is not secured or compounded to the reasonable satisfaction of Forland within three weeks, the solicitors of Forland will apply for the company to be wound up by the High Court of Singapore.

Mainboard-listed property developer First Sponsor Group on Tuesday posted more than double growth in net profit to S$72.9 million for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2016, up from S$31.9 million a year ago.

This is despite a significant fall in revenue from S$100.3 million in the previous year to S$21.6 million this year, due mainly to lower revenue from the sale of properties and property financing of S$74.1 million and S$4.8 million respectively.