GHY Culture, Oxley, HRnetGroup buy back shares

FOR the 4 trading sessions over the span of Jul 8 to 14, the Straits Times Index lost 1.2 per cent. The Singapore market was closed on Jul 11 for Hari Raya Haji. Over the same period, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up 0.1 per cent, the Hang Seng Index lost 4.1 per cent, while the Nikkei 225 gained 0.6 per cent.

Over the 4 trading sessions, there were 52 filings for changes in director interests and substantial shareholdings filed by 25 primary-listed stocks, as well as 19 filings for share buybacks by 10 companies.

GHY Culture & Media

Drama and film production company GHY Culture & Media on Jul 8 bought back 7,500 of its shares at S$0.50 per piece., amounting to S$3,794.77.

In a filing on Jul 12, GHY said one of its indirect associated companies entered into a production collaboration agreement with a unit of ByteDance, which operates the short-form video platform Douyin.

GHY said it has identified the short-form video market as one of its new growth adjacencies. As part of the agreement, the companies produced an online short drama series that was released on Douyin on Jul 5.

GHY said the co-production of the drama series is part of its business strategies and growth plans to create more monetisation opportunities, and to further diversify its portfolio of entertainment products and its distribution channels.

Oxley Holdings

Property developer Oxley Holdings was buying back its shares over the period.

On Jul 8, the company bought 146,500 shares at a range between S$0.171 and S$0.174, for a total consideration of S$25,481.93.

On Jul 12, it bought 176,200 shares at between S$0.172 and S$0.173, for a total consideration of S$30,559.48.

On Jul 13, it bought 218,100 shares at a range between S$0.171 and S$0.174, for a total consideration of S$37,692.98.

On Jul 14, the company also bought 191,900 shares at a range between S$0.175 and S$0.176, for a total consideration of S$33,769.16.

This brings the total number of treasury shares held by the company to 31.6 million after the buybacks.

In a business update on Jul 4, Oxley said it intends to focus its property development activities in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland, as it deems them as “relatively more politically stable and transparent”.

It also noted that as at Jun 27, about 99 per cent of its residential units in Singapore, excluding fully completed and sold projects, have been sold, and that construction progress of the projects is on schedule with the easing of Covid-related control measures.

HRnetGroup

On Jul 8, recruitment company HRnetGroup bought back 202,300 of its shares at S$0.7787 each.

The company paid a total consideration of S$158,007.19 for the shares.

HRnetGroup in June said it would buy back up to S$30 million of its shares under its new buyback programme. The programme allows the recruitment company to purchase up to 10 per cent of its issued shares when they are undervalued due to market conditions.

Earlier in the week, HRnetGroup also noted that it has increased its stake in UK recruitment company Staffline.

In a filing on Jul 5, the company said its current stake represent 15 per cent of the Staffline’s voting rights. It noted that it had originally acquired the shareholding interest as part of its strategy to opportunistically enter new markets in the human resources space.

Raffles Education Corporation

Two independent directors of Raffles Education Corporation have acquired some of the company’s shares via market transactions.

On Jul 12, a bourse filing showed that Ng Kwan Meng bought 106,600 shares for a total consideration of S$6,396. Another filing on Jul 13 said Ng bought another 1.3 million shares for a total consideration of S$80,304.

Meanwhile, a filing on Jul 12 showed that Chua Chwee Koh bought 3 million shares for a total consideration of S$180,000.

Ng is among the directors of the company that were notified of their formal arrest and bail conditions of S$30,000 each in February. The directors were involved in investigations related to the company’s disclosures on a claim by Affin Bank against certain subsidiaries of the company.

Then, Raffles Education said it would not be replacing its directors who were out on bail as the resignation of almost the entire board of directors could destabilise the business and operations.