Stocks to watch: Prudential, Top Glove, ValueMax, Fu Yu, BlackGold Natural Resources

[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that might affect trading of its securities on Friday (Mar 21).

Prudential : The company on Thursday announced a joint venture with India’s HCL Group’s promoter company Vama Sundari Investments (Delhi) to operate a standalone health insurance business. Prudential and Vama will have, respectively, 70:30 stakes in the venture, which is subject to regulatory approvals. Prudential is eyeing growth in India, looking at opportunities to expand its life and health businesses, said chief executive Anil Wadhwani during an earnings call after the release of its 2024 financial year results on Thursday. Prudential reported a 2 per cent dip in new business profit to US$3.08 billion. On a constant exchange rate basis, new business profit would have been up 11 per cent. Overall, profit for FY2024 rose 41 per cent to US$2.4 billion. On a constant exchange rate basis, profit would have been up 43 per cent. Shares of Prudential ended Thursday flat at US$8.21.

Top Glove : The Malaysian glove manufacturer reported a net profit of RM30.3 million (S$9.1 million) for its second quarter ended Feb 28, reversing from a net loss of RM51.2 million the year before. This translated into basic earnings per share of 0.38 sen, from a basic loss per share of 0.64 sen for Q2 FY2024. The group attributed its improved performance to a sustained uptrend in glove orders on the back of recovering global demand, as well as trade diversions resulting from US tariffs on Chinese glove exports. The company will continue to reopen temporarily closed factories once current utilisation reaches around 70 per cent, and aims to increase its running capacity by 10 billion pieces by the end of FY2025. Shares of Top Glove ended Thursday unchanged at S$0.275.

ValueMax : The pawnbroking chain raised S$71.7 million through two separate three-month digital securities commercial papers that closed on Thursday, the company said on the same day. Both papers were issued on Mar 3 and received “strong demand” from investors, ValueMax said. One of them is its three-month Series 014 Issuance, which raised S$23.4 million in gross proceeds. The digital securities will be listed on the ADDX digital platform on Friday. The company also raised S$48.29 million through its three-month Series 008 SDAX Issuance. This was issued on the Singapore’s Digital Asset Exchange (SDAX) on Thursday. ValueMax shares fell S$0.005 or 1 per cent to close at S$0.52 on Thursday.

Fu Yu : Its largest shareholder Victor Lim made a new request to table resolutions for the removal and appointment of directors at the company’s upcoming annual general meeting, the precision plastic-parts maker said on Thursday. This follows Lim’s two previous attempts to requisition extraordinary general meetings for the directors’ appointments and removals. The company said it would update shareholders on any developments and urged caution in dealing with its shares. Shares of Fu Yu ended Thursday at S$0.10, up 2 per cent or S$0.002, before the announcement.

BlackGold Natural Resources : The Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) reprimanded three directors and the chief financial officer (CFO) of BlackGold Natural Resources for breaching listing rules, citing their failure to implement adequate internal controls and risk management systems, as well as the failure to promptly disclose material information. SGX RegCo noted that while the CFO and CEO were aware of material information that required immediate disclosure, they failed to raise this information with the board in a timely manner. Despite the regulator’s requests, the company was unable to produce any evidence to substantiate the existence of internal controls it purportedly implemented at the material time. Trading in its shares has been suspended since June 2023; they last traded at S$0.003. The company has been placed under judicial management since Jan 26, 2024.