Wee Cho Yaw adds to his stake in UOL

FOR the five trading sessions that spanned Mar 24 to 30, the Straits Times Index (STI) gained 1.2 per cent with the Hang Seng Index rising 1.5 per cent and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI adding 1.0 per cent.

Institutions were net sellers of Singapore stocks over the five sessions with S$152 million of net outflow.

DBS : D05 0%, OCBC : O39 0%, Suntec Reit : T82U 0%, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding : BS6 0% (Holdings) and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust : C38U 0% led the net institutional outflow for the five sessions.

Meanwhile, Sats : S58 0%, Singapore Exchange : S68 0%, Keppel Corporation : BN4 0%, AEM Holdings : AWX 0% and Sembcorp Marine : S51 0% led the net institutional inflow for the five sessions.

Share buybacks

There were 13 primary-listed companies conducting share buybacks over the five trading sessions through to Mar 30. OCBC again bought back 400,000 shares over the five sessions, with the average price paid at S$12.47. (* see amendment note below)

On Mar 24, Keppel Reit Management bought back one million units of Keppel Reit : K71U 0% at an average price S$0.868 per unit.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Digital Core Reit Management also bought back 130,000 units of Digital Core Reit : DCRU 0% at US$0.425 per unit on Mar 28, and 225,000 units at US$0.423 per unit on Mar 27.

Director and substantial shareholder transactions

The five trading sessions saw more than 70 changes to director interests and substantial shareholdings filed for close to 30 primary-listed stocks.

This included 20 company director acquisitions with one disposal filed, while substantial shareholders filed 11 acquisitions and 11 disposals.

UOL Group

On Mar 27, Wee Investments acquired 300,00 shares at an average price of S$6.74 per share. This took the total interest of chairman Wee Cho Yaw from 38.30 per cent to 38.34 per cent.

The preceding acquisitions by Wee Investments were in May 2022, with 700,000 shares acquired at an average price of S$6.99 per share.

With more than 60 years of experience across the banking, insurance, real estate, and hospitality industries, Apr 23 will mark 50 years that Wee has served as a director of UOL Group.

Wee will be appointed chairman emeritus of United Overseas Insurance : U13 0% (UOI) with effect from his retirement as chairman and director at the close of the UOI AGM on Apr 14. He has also retired as chairman of Singapore Land Group and Marina Centre Holdings on Mar 31.

At the time of writing, there have been no announcements of his intentions to remain or retire as chairman of both UOL Group : U14 0% and Haw Par Corporation : H02 0%.

On Feb 27, UOL Group reported FY22 (ended Dec 31) net attributable profit of S$491.9 million, representing 60 per cent growth from FY21. Revenue from property development rose 26 per cent to S$1.98 billion in FY22 on higher progressive revenue recognition from Clavon, The Watergardens at Canberra and AMO Residence in Singapore, while more units were handed over for Park Eleven in Shanghai.

With the results, UOL Group CEO Liam Wee Sin noted that management believed that the group’s residential inventory which has strong locational attributes will continue to draw keen interest from homebuyers and investors and its land replenishment includes two freehold land parcels which are rare and sought after.

UOL Group, through its hotel subsidiary Pan Pacific Hotels Group, also owns three acclaimed brands namely Pan Pacific, Parkroyal Collection and Parkroyal.

In FY22, hotel operations saw a significant revenue increase of 97 per cent to S$554.1 million due mainly to contributions from the opening of new or refurbished hotels, including Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay in May 2021, Pan Pacific London in September 2021, and Parkroyal Collection Kuala Lumpur in June 2022.

Bonvests Holdings

Between Mar 23 and 24, Bonvests Holdings : B28 0% executive chairman Henry Ngo acquired 550,000 shares at an average price of S$0.960 per share.

The acquisition was made through Allsland, which is wholly owned by Ngo and increased his total interest in Bonvests from 84.27 per cent to 84.41 per cent. Ngo has gradually increased his total interest in the group which has three core business, from 82.93 per cent in August 2018.

The three core businesses span property development and investment, hotel ownership and management, and waste management and contract cleaning of buildings.

OxPay Financial

Between Mar 22 and 27, OxPay Financial : TVV 0% non-executive non-independent chairman Ching Chiat Kwong acquired 1,281,800 shares at an average price of S$0.078 per share. With a consideration of S$99,659, this increased his direct interest in the Catalist-listed online-to-offline financial services technology provider from 27.03 per cent to 27.49 per cent.

With its FY22 (ended Dec 31) results released on Feb 22, the group noted that under its new management, it intends to grow in the Asean region through international payments alliances with players in the region.

OxPay has also been in a partnership with Asia’s leading “buy-now-pay-later” platform, Atome, since October 2022, to expand and accelerate flexible deferred payments acceptance by merchants in Asia.

Nanofilm Technologies International

On Mar 28, Nanofilm Technologies International : MZH 0% independent director Wan Kum Tho acquired 15,000 shares at S$1.57 per share. This increased his deemed interest in the leading provider of nanotechnology solutions in Asia to 25,000 shares.

Wan has more than 24 years of experience in the venture capital and private equity investment industry and is currently the managing director (Investments, Apac) of Singtel Innov8, the corporate venture capital arm of Singtel.

With its FY22 (ended Dec 31) results released on Feb 21, Nanofilm Technologies International relayed that it remained focused on key strategic growth areas, including expanding geographical diversification and coverage; entering new segments with capability and product expansion; joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions; research and development; and engineering product development.

Far East Group

On Mar 27, Far East Group : 5TJ 0% non-executive chairman Loh Pui Lai acquired 220,000 shares at an average price of S$0.102 per share. This increased her total interest in the company from 5.65 per cent to 5.85 per cent.

The principal activities of Far East Group consist of manufacturing and trading of refrigeration parts, servicing of cold rooms, construction and installation of commercial and industrial cold rooms and all other incidental business of refrigeration.

On Feb 28, Far East Group reported that its profit before tax improved by S$1.3 million, from S$1.0 million in FY21 to S$2.3 million in FY22 (ended Dec 31).

This was mainly due to an increase in revenue in FY22. The group’s business in the various segments of wholesale and distribution, engineering solutions and manufacturing have started to recover on the back of increased economic activities with the global easing of travel restrictions.

This saw its revenue increase by S$21.1 million or 25.4 per cent, from S$83.1 million in FY21 to S$104.2 million in FY22.

Tai Sin Electric

Between Mar 23 and 27, the spouse of Tai Sin Electric : 500 0% executive director and CEO Bernard Lim Boon Hock increased his total interest by 171,000 shares. The shares were acquired by Pang Yoke Chun at S$0.39 per share.

With a consideration of S$66,690, the acquisitions increased Lim’s total interest in the leading South-east Asia industrial group from 17.45 per cent to 17.49 per cent.

Lim has gradually increased his total interest in Tai Sin Electric from 14.82 per cent at the end of 2019.

Acesian Partners

On Mar 27, Acesian Partners : 5FW 0% executive director & group chief operating officer Wong Kok Chye disposed of 3,040,500 shares at S$0.065 per share. With a consideration of S$197,633, this reduced his direct interest in the Catalist-listed company from 1.42 per cent to 0.79 per cent.

Wong joined the group in 2000 and has over 20 years of experience in air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation. His role is to focus on the operation of the manufacturing and distribution businesses.

As reported on Feb 24, Acesian Partners’ FY22 (ended Dec 31) revenue was up 157.7 per cent from FY21, at S$38.17 million. The higher revenue was boosted by the strong revenue growth from the critical airflow design and supply segment which included the critical environment control systems (ECO) business.

This was largely contributed by, among others, the improvement in business volume and pent-up demand, progressive delivery of the multiple significant new sales orders, and a ramp-up of its production capacity and improvement in ECO business.

The stock has continued to rank among the 100 most traded Singapore stocks by turnover in Q1 2023.

On Mar 29, Acesian Partners substantial shareholder Kelvin Kwok Ying Choy acquired 1.5 million shares of the company, increasing his direct interest from 9.79 per cent to 10.10 per cent. Kwok’s direct interest crossed over the 9.0 per cent threshold on Mar 13.

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.