Stocks to watch: Manulife US Reit, Courts Asia, 8Telecom International

THESE companies have seen new developments that may affect trading of their shares on Monday:

Manulife US Reit: The pure-play US office Reit's fourth quarter distribution per unit (DPU) rose almost 8 per cent, boosted by contributions from properties acquired in 2017 and 2018. The DPU for the three months ended Dec 31 grew 7.7 per cent to 1.53 US cents, from 1.42 US cents a year ago. The Reit's distributable income for the quarter was up 33.8 per cent to US$19.6 million from US$14.6 million a year ago. DPU for the year fell 3.5 per cent to 5.57 US cents. Nonetheless, adjusted DPU rose 3.6 per cent to 6.05 US cents.

Courts Asia: Courts Asia posted a net loss of S$171,000 for its third quarter ended Dec 31, compared to a net profit of S$3.51 million for the same period a year ago, on the back of lower gross profit margins and revenue as well as higher income tax expenses. Revenue for the group stood at S$175.3 million for Q3, down 6.2 per cent previously. Loss per share stood at 0.03 Singapore cent for Q3, compared to earnings per share of 0.68 Singapore cent a year ago. Earlier in January, Japanese electronics retailer Nojima Corp made a bid for Courts Asia at 20.5 Singapore cents per share as it seeks to gain a foothold in South-east Asia.

8Telecom International: The mainboard-listed telecommunications infrastructure solutions company has not been given the green light by the Singapore Exchange to issue new shares, including those that it had intended to issue to pay for the partial acquisition of China Commodity Market and China Commodity Centre. 8Telecom is in discussion with these two companies with regard to revising the acquisition terms.