Stocks to watch: Sembmarine, SPH, Yinda Infocomm, Neo Group, ST Engineering

THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Wednesday:

Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine): The mainboard-listed offshore and marine company on Wednesday morning gave notice of recording three consecutive years of pre-tax losses. Its six-month average daily market cap as at March 30 was S$1.89 billion. Prior to the announcement, Sembmarine ended Tuesday at a two-month high of 17.1 Singapore cents, up one cent or 6.2 per cent, the day after it said it clinched a £600 million (S$1.12 billion) UK wind farm contract together with GE Renewable Energy's Grid Solutions.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH): The media and property group on Tuesday posted a 26.1 per cent increase in net profit to S$97.9 million for the half year ended Feb 28, due to improvements in its non-media business segments as the economy gradually recovers. It also announced that the company will be undergoing a strategic review "to consider options for its various businesses". SPH shares closed flat at S$1.50 on Tuesday.

Yinda Infocomm: The Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) issued a "trade with caution" alert for the Catalist-listed company on Tuesday, after its review showed that "a group of accounts appeared to be influencing the share prices" of the counter. SGX RegCo noted five corporate actions by Yinda where the volume-weighted average price of its shares was integral, and observed that "the same person acted as the introducer in all five of these announcements". The counter closed 6.4 per cent or 0.9 Singapore cent higher at 14.9 cents on Tuesday.

Neo Group: Founder, chairman and chief executive officer Neo Kah Kiat intends to take the Catalist-listed food caterer private via a voluntary conditional cash offer at S$0.60 per share. The company made the announcement late Tuesday, after the counter closed at 58.5 Singapore cents, up 8.5 cents or 17 per cent earlier that day.

ST Engineering: The group announced on Tuesday morning that it has raised the offer price for its proposed acquisition of all of New York-listed Cubic Corporation's outstanding stock to US$78 per share in cash, up from its previous US$76-a-share offer. Shares of ST Engineering closed 0.3 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$3.90 on Tuesday.

GKE Corporation: The warehousing and logistics provider has been granted a farm licence for its wholly-owned subsidiary GKE Agritech to grow and sell agricultural produce commercially in Singapore. GKE shares closed 2.3 per cent or 0.3 Singapore cent higher at 13.4 cents on Tuesday.

Tan Chong International: The car company was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic in the last financial year, with profit attributable to shareholders plunging 95.5 per cent to HK$9.51 million (S$1.65 million) for the year ended Dec 31, the mainboard-listed firm said in its results release on Tuesday after market close. The counter last traded flat at HK$2.03.

Sabana Shari'ah Compliant Reit (Sabana Reit): Activist unitholders' calls for going beyond "business as usual" are outside the power or discretion of the manager board to fulfil, the manager of the Reit said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Tuesday night. It was made in response to various issues raised via e-mail, letters and public releases by investment funds Quarz Capital Management and Black Crane Capital, which collectively hold about 13 per cent of the total units of Sabana Reit. The counter closed 1.3 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent lower at 39 cents on Tuesday.