FOR the five trading sessions that spanned Apr 21 to 27, the Straits Times Index (STI) declined 0.9 per cent with the Hang Seng Index gaining 2.7 per cent and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipping 0.3 per cent.

Institutions were net buyers of Singapore stocks over the period with S$114 million of net inflow.

DBS : D05 0%, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust : C38U 0%, CapitaLand Investment : 9CI 0%, Singtel : Z74 0% and Singapore Airlines : C6L 0% led the net institutional inflow for the five sessions.

Meanwhile, UOB : U11 0%, City Developments : C09 0%, Sats : S58 0%, CapitaLand Ascendas Reit : A17U 0% and Suntec Reit : T82U 0% led the net institutional outflow for the five sessions.

The S$219 million in net institutional inflow over the 10 sessions through to Apr 27 trimmed the total net institutional outflows for the year thus far to S$1.85 billion.

Share buybacks

There were 12 companies conducting share buybacks over the five trading sessions through to Apr 27. (* see amendment note below)

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Comba Telecom Systems Holdings : STC 0% bought back 4,394,000 shares at an average price of HK$1.64 per share and Nanofilm Technologies International bought back 2,856,100 shares at an average price S$1.50 per share. The current share buyback mandate of Nanofilm has seen Asia’s nanotechnology solutions leader buy back 1.78 per cent of its issued shares (excluding treasury shares). (** see amendment note below)

On Apr 19, the company provided a Q1FY23 business update, in addition to providing more granularity on the four strategic pillars of the group’s growth strategy.

Global Investments filed the third highest consideration for the week with 2,183,400 shares acquired at an average price of S$0.106 per share.

Director and substantial shareholder transactions

The five trading sessions saw more than 90 changes to director interests and substantial shareholdings filed for close to 40 primary-listed stocks.

These included 22 company director acquisitions with one disposal filed, while substantial shareholders filed eight acquisitions and five disposals.

Asian Pay Television Trust

Between Apr 24 and 25, non-executive director of the trustee-manager of APTT : S7OU 0%, Dai Yung Huei, increased his deemed interest at the same price as his recent acquisitions at S$0.109 per unit. This saw 820,100 units acquired by Araedis Investment, increasing Dai’s deemed interest of APTT from 19.43 per cent to 19.47 per cent.

Dai is the chairman of Da Da Digital Convergence Co and the founder of Dafeng TV – the first publicly traded cable TV provider in Taiwan, which operates in domestic markets including New Taipei City and Kaohsiung City. APTT is the first listed business trust in Asia focused on pay-TV and broadband businesses.

Bumitama Agri

On Apr 21, Bumitama Agri : P8Z 0% lead independent director Lim Hung Siang increased his total interest by 100,000 shares at S$0.645 per share. The 100,000 shares, held by Lim’s spouse, take his total interest in the leading producer of crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK) in Indonesia to 150,000 shares.

Lim’s professional career encompasses extensive experience running several companies in the transport and engineering sectors, including Singapore Automotive Engineering Group and ComfortDelGro Corporation.

He has also overseen business development initiatives and mergers/acquisitions in Europe, Australia, and China, as well as the setting up and operating of new business units.

The rally of CPO prices on top of a robust production recovery in the first half of 2022 boosted Bumitama Agri’s FY22 (ended Dec 31) financial results, allowing the group to post all-time high revenue and profit figures for two consecutive years.

Revenue climbed 29.2 per cent year on year (yoy) to 15.83 trillion rupiah (S$1.4 billion) in FY22, propped by the sale of 1.10 million MT of CPO at 12,519 rupiah per kg and 245,898 MT of PK at 8,285 rupiah per kg. Both the CPO and PK selling prices on average were higher than those in FY21, by 27.1 per cent and 17.3 per cent, respectively.

In a business outlook report on Mar 24, Bumitama Agri executive chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Gunawan Hariyanto Lim maintained that demand composition in Indonesia is expected to shift towards more domestic consumption, consistent with the government’s announcement of the B35 biodiesel mandate. He noted that production, however, will face the challenging effects from the likelihood of El Nino’s return, and ageing plantation profiles in both Indonesia and Malaysia.

Lim added that the lack of industry new plantings, starting from 2015 onwards, will be aggravated further by years of under-manuring mainly in smallholdings due to rising fertiliser prices and scarcity during 2022.

Yangzijiang Financial Holding

On Apr 24, Yangzijiang Financial Holding : YF8 0% (YZJFH) lead independent non-executive director Chew Sutat acquired 112,000 shares at S$0.385 per share. With a consideration of S$43,120, this increased his direct interest in the company to one million shares. His preceding acquisition was on Sep 20, 2022, with 188,000 shares acquired at S$0.39 per share.

Chew was senior managing director and a member of SGX’s executive management team for 14 years. Prior to SGX, he had senior roles at Standard Chartered Bank, OCBC Securities and DBS, where he held various portfolios in strategic planning and business development for institutional banking and private clients.

In the YZJFH Annual Report 2022, executive chairman Ren Yuanlin highlighted three key milestone achievements for the company last year.

The first was spinning off YZJFH as a separate listed entity from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) on the SGX Mainboard, enabling YZJFH to pursue its goal of becoming a leading investment manager in Asia, deliver sustainable growth and unlock value for shareholders.

The second milestone was beefing up its talent pool by building a team of approximately 80 seasoned professionals across China and Singapore, as YZJFH expanded its fund and wealth management operations in the region to generate additional sources of recurring income.

A third notable achievement was reducing YZJFH’s debt investments in China to approximately 59 per cent of its total portfolio and moving 13 per cent of the group’s assets to Singapore for investments outside of China, as of Dec 31, 2022.

GSH Corporation

Between Apr 20 and Apr 26, GSH Corporation : BDX 0% executive chairman Sam Goi Seng Hui acquired 107,600 shares at S$0.162 per share, for a consideration of S$17,431. His total interest in GSH Corporation is 63.98 per cent.

In addition to serving as the executive chairman of Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing since 1977, Goi has a wealth of investment experience across a range of listed and private entities in numerous industries, such as food and beverage, consumer essentials, recycling, distribution, and logistics.

OxPay Financial

On Apr 21, OxPay Financial : TVV 0% non-executive non-independent chairman Ching Chiat Kwong acquired 122,000 shares, at an average price of S$0.086 per share.

With a consideration of S$10,514, this increased his direct interest in the online-to-offline financial services technology provider from 27.76 per cent to 27.80 per cent.

Ching has 20 years of property industry experience and is also the executive chairman and CEO of Oxley Holdings.

Geo Energy Resources

On Apr 21, Geo Energy Resources : RE4 0% independent director Richard Ong Beng Chye disposed of 900,000 shares at S$0.33 per share. With a consideration of S$297,000 this reduced his direct interest from 0.14 per cent to 0.07 per cent.

Ong has more than 25 years of experience in areas such as accounting, auditing, public listings, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, and business advisory.

He is currently a director of Appleton Global, a business management and consultancy services firm, the board’s non-executive chairman for Hafary Holdings and Heatec Jietong Holdings.

In 2022, Geo Energy Resources’ revenue rose by 14 per cent to US$733.5 million, driven by strong Indonesia Coal Index 4 prices and higher average selling price, offset by the lower sales volume.

The group recorded its highest earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of US$284.4 million, up 5 per cent from 2021, while net profit decreased by 9 per cent to US$163.6 million.

As relayed in the company’s responses in the Q&A ahead of its Apr 28 annual general meeting, it stated that coal produced by Geo Energy Resources is sold to various geographical markets, with China remaining the biggest market for the group and there has been stronger demand from China in the last few months.

The writer is the market strategist at Singapore Exchange (SGX). To read SGX’s market research reports, visit sgx.com/research.

Amendment note:

* An earlier version of this story gave the total buyback consideration value in Sing dollars, but this is incorrect as one of the components is not in Sing dollars. **An earlier version of this story gave the Comba share price in Sing dollars, but this is incorrect as it should be HK$.