Stocks to watch: Japfa, Keppel, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Venture, CapitaLand Ascott Trust, QAF
THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Tuesday (Oct 1):
Japfa : The agri-food company only managed to purchase 76.3 per cent of the maximum number of shares it had planned to buy in its own company under an equal access scheme. On Monday, Japfa said it would acquire about 139.8 million shares instead of the planned purchase of 183.3 million shares or about 9 per cent of its shares in issue. Japfa will make payment to shareholders who participated in the scheme on Oct 7. The company’s shares rose 1.4 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.35 at market close on Monday, before this announcement.
Keppel : The asset manager’s subsidiary, Jencity, is divesting 70 per cent of its stake in its wholly owned unit Saigon Sports City, which holds development rights for a 64-hectare plot of land in Ho Chi Minh City, Keppel said on Monday. The transactions are not expected to have any material impact on the net tangible assets per share or earnings per share of Keppel for the current financial year. Keppel shares rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.01 to S$6.63 on Monday, before the announcement.
Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) : MIT will acquire a freehold, mixed-use Tokyo property for 14.5 billion yen (S$130 million). The purchase is expected to improve its yield and will be funded by yen-denominated borrowings, the trust said on Monday. MIT Management chief executive Lily Ler said that the property’s strategic location in the key data centre cluster of West Tokyo presents a future opportunity to redevelop a new data centre, given the robust demand for such facilities amid tight supply and limited development opportunities. MIT units fell 2 per cent or S$0.05 to close at S$2.43 on Monday, before the announcement.
Venture Corporation : The technology company has named Wong Chee Kheong, 62, as its group chief executive officer with effect from Nov 1. Separately, Venture on Tuesday also announced that its chief executive officer of technology products and solutions, Lee Ghai Keen, has resigned due to personal reasons. Shares of Venture Corporation closed 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 higher at S$14.04 on Monday.
CapitaLand Ascott Trust (Clas) : The hospitality player is acquiring Victory SR Trust (VSRT), which holds a 100 per cent interest in lyf Funan Singapore. On Tuesday, its managers said the purchase consideration is estimated to come in at S$146.4 million after accounting for VSRT’s net asset value based on the property’s agreed value of S$263 million. Stapled securities of Clas ended Monday S$0.005 or 0.5 per cent higher at S$0.975.
QAF : The bakery said it would book the RM22 million (S$6.8 million) it received as final insurance payment for flooding compensation as an exceptional gain in its financial results for the second half of FY2024. This comes as the company received insurance payouts totalling about RM131 million after its Malaysian factory was severely flooded in December 2021, it said on Monday. QAF shares were up 1.2 per cent or S$0.01 at S$0.83 on Monday at market close, before this announcement was made.
Trading halt: Mainboard-listed Ascent Bridge called for a trading halt on Tuesday morning, pending the release of an announcement. The counter ended flat at S$0.14 last Friday. No trades were done on Monday.
