Hot stock: Starburst shares shoot up 7.5% on partnership deal

SHARES of Catalist-listed Starburst Holdings shot up in the early-morning trade on Wednesday following its announcement to partner Swiss Securitas Group to provide homeland security services and security engineering solutions.

At 11.05am, the stock had risen 7.5 per cent or 2.5 Singapore cents to S$0.36. Over 16 million units changed hands, making it one of the most active counters.

On Tuesday, the Singapore-based engineering group specialising in the design and engineering of firearms-training facilities had said it would provide services to Swiss Securitas Asia through its wholly owned subsidiary, Starburst Security Engineering.

This was expected to help the group gain a footing in providing specialised "security by design" solutions, including a suite of comprehensive security risk assessment, security design and planning, blast mitigation, fire engineering, crisis management and business continuity management solutions in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets.

Under the deal, Swiss Securitas Group would purchase 10 million vendor shares and six million warrants from two controlling shareholders, which would be about a 5.1 per cent equity stake in Starburst based on the enlarged share capital.