UMS Holdings buys 7.5% stake in JEP Holdings for S$5.7m

UMS Holdings said on Tuesday it has bought a 7.48 per cent stake in JEP Holdings for S$5.7 million.

The mainboard-listed firm bought a total of 109 million JEP shares on the open market, it said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange after the markets closed.

The purchase was funded by internal resources and satisfied in cash.

None of the directors or substantial shareholders of the company has any interest, direct or indirect, in the transaction, said UMS.

UMS' investment in JEP, a precision machining company, comes a day after JEP said an unrelated third party has been in talks with its executive directors in their personal capacities over a possible deal to acquire a controlling interest in the company.

JEP had cited this development as a possible reason for the heavy trading in its shares on Monday, in response to a trading query from the Singapore Exchange.

The company said the board has received information that the third party, who was not named, has been in talks with executive directors Joe Lau and Zee Hoong Huay over a possible transaction that involves the acquisition of a portion of the existing shares of the company beneficially owned by them.

If the transaction goes through, this could result in the third party acquiring at least 15 per cent - and a controlling interest - of the company.

JEP said that it has been told that the discussions are at an exploratory stage.

Shares of JEP continued to be heavily traded on Tuesday. The counter, which closed 1.6 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent down at six Singapore cents, was the most active stock on the bourse with 375.2 million shares changing hands.

Meanwhile, shares of UMS finished unchanged at S$1.04, before the announcement was made.