Unit studying options to support operations: Cosco

A SUBSIDIARY of Chinese shipbuilder Cosco Corporation (Singapore) is exploring possibilities of expanding its sources of funding and optimising its asset structure, but stressed that this should not have had an effect on the price surge of the counter on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the company's stock closed at S$0.435, up 3.5 Singapore cents or 8.8 per cent, on 31.4 million shares traded. It prompted a query from the Singapore Exchange on its unusual share price movements. Tuesday's increase came after a six-cent increase on Monday.

In response, the company wrote in a filing to the Singapore Exchange before markets opened on Wednesday that it "understands that the management of its 51 per cent-owned subsidiary, Cosco Shipyard Group Co Ltd, is currently exploring various options to support its business operations, including expansion of its sources of funding and optimising its asset structure. The process is still at a very preliminary stage and there is no certainty as to whether the matter will materialise".

"Save for the foregoing, the company is not aware of any information not previously announced concerning the company, its subsidiaries or associated companies which, if known, might explain the trading," it wrote.

The company is also not aware of any other possible explanation for the trading, it added.