iFast cites contract bids, news and industry reports in response to SGX queries on share price surge

Singapore

THE share price of wealth management platform iFast Corp burst out of the blocks on Friday, which drew another query from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) over the "unusual price movements".

The counter continued its dizzying climb to hit an intraday high of S$4.68 before easing slightly to S$4.63 as at mid morning, up S$0.35 or 8.2 per cent, with two million shares worth S$9.2 million changing hands.

No married deals were recorded in early trade, according to Shareinvestor data.

In a bourse filing, SGX noted that this marked the fourth query issued to iFast in the past six months.

It asked if the company was aware of any possible explanation for the trading activity, including any information not previously announced, or the public circulation of information by rumours or reports.

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iFast was also asked to confirm its compliance with the mainboard listing rules.

In its response on Friday afternoon, iFast said it had participated in the bidding of projects, including "certain ones in Hong Kong" which may have a material positive impact on its business should they prove successful.

The firm, however, added it was unable to provide any further comments at this point of time due to the projects' confidentiality requirements and uncertainty of their outcomes.

iFast also cited news of its assets under administration growth to S$14.45 billion as at Dec 31, 2020, as a possible explanation for the trading activity on Friday. This is in addition to an initiation research report from Jefferies Singapore issued this week, as well as a research update from CGS-CIMB on the company's business, it said.

Jefferies initiated a "buy" on the counter in a Jan 11 report with a target price of S$3.51. CGS-CIMB maintained its "hold" recommendation on iFast in its latest Jan 13 report, but raised its target price to S$4.15 from S$3.41 previously on expectations of record earnings for Q4 FY2020.

Other than the reasons mentioned above, iFast said it was not aware of any possible explanation for its share price surge, and confirmed its compliance with the mainboard listing rules.

iFast was reported by Bloomberg on Aug 6, 2020, to have been working with telecommunications provider PCCW to bid for Hong Kong's project to digitise its retirement funds system. The group was queried for its share price surge the following day and in its response cited the article as a possible reason for the trading activity, although iFast said it did not provide comments in the report.

The company was similarly queried by SGX on Jan 4 for "unusual price movements". In its response on the same day, the company noted expectation in the market that the result for the application of the digital bank licence in Singapore was to be announced by the end of last year. It said it was not aware of the outcome of the awarding of the licence at the point in time. The mainboard-listed company was later revealed to have not secured the licence.

iFast shares closed Friday up S$0.29 or 6.8 per cent at S$4.57.