Stocks to watch: UMS, Golden Agri, Olam, NetLink, Oxley, Sasseur Reit, Nam Cheong, Thomson Medical

THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their shares on Tuesday:

UMS Holdings: The mainboard-listed precision engineering firm said on Monday that it has acquired another 10.9 per cent of the shares in Catalist-listed JEP Holdings, through a married deal with mainboard-listed Ellipsiz. UMS paid S$6.6 million or S$0.15 a share for each JEP share, with the deal raising its stake in the latter from 27.9 per cent to 38.8 per cent. UMS had called for a trading halt on Monday, 15 minutes before the end of the trading day. UMS shares fell 4.65 per cent or three Singapore cents to S$0.615 on Monday. (Please see amendment note)

Golden Agri-Resources: It reported a 54.5 per cent rise in net profit to US$18.3 million for the first quarter ended March 31, from US$11.9 million a year ago. This was mainly from a gain on disposal of a subsidiary in Indonesia, the palm oil plantation owner said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday morning. Earnings per share stood at 0.14 US cent from 0.09 US cent a year ago. There is no dividend for the quarter, unchanged from the year before. Shares of the company closed at S$0.275 on Monday, down 0.5 Singapore cent. Its shares closed down 1.79 per cent, or S$0.005, at S$0.275 on Monday.

Olam International: The agri-food company's first-quarter net profit increased 6.9 per cent to S$168.9 million, from S$158 million for the year ago period as its improved operating performance was partly offset by higher depreciation and finance costs. Earnings per share for the quarter to March 31 was 4.89 Singapore cents versus 4.57 Singapore cents. Olam shares closed down 2.22 per cent, or S$0.04, at S$1.76 on Monday.

NetLink NBN Trust: The fibre network provider has called for a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.44 Singapore cents for the fourth quarter in results released on Monday. The latest payout takes DPU for the 12 months to 4.88 Singapore cents, compared with 3.24 Singapore cents for the previous full year. Net profit came in at S$20 million for the three months to March 31, up 30.9 per cent year on year, and 11.7 per cent higher than projected in the trust's listing prospectus. NetLink units closed down 0.6 per cent, or S$0.005, at S$0.83 on Monday.

Oxley: The property developer on Monday posted a net profit of S$66.1 million for the third quarter, up 118 per cent from the same period a year earlier as fair-value gains offset a fall in revenue. The group expects to complete the sale of 30 Raffles Place (formerly known as Chevron House) for S$1.025 billion in the first quarter of 2020, and has recorded other gains of S$101.5 million for the third quarter, up from S$33.1 million for the third quarter last year, due mainly to the revaluation of investment properties in Dublin and Singapore. Oxley shares closed down 1.64 per cent, or S$0.005, at S$0.30 on Monday.

Sasseur Reit: The Reit on Monday posted a first-quarter distribution per unit (DPU) of 1.656 Singapore cents, 9.3 per cent higher than the projected DPU of 1.515 Singapore cents. For the three months ended March 31, distributable income was S$19.7 million, also 9.3 per cent above forecast. Sasseur Reit's net property income, listed as entrusted management agreements rental income, was S$30.9 million, 2.4 per cent above forecast. The Reit's units closed down 0.64 per cent, or S$0.005, at S$0.78.

Nam Cheong: Despite revenue increase from its vessel chartering segment, a significant reduction in other income dragged first-quarter results for the offshore marine firm. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, net profit came in at RM420,000 (S$138,082), down from RM522.5 million last year. The results translate to an earnings per share of 0.01 sen, against an earnings per share of 24.92 sen for the year-ago period. The counter last traded at 0.9 Singapore cent, down 10 per cent, or 0.1 Singapore cent on Monday.

Thomson Medical: The company on Monday announced that it turned in a net loss of S$1.01 million for the first quarter - versus a net profit of S$89,000 a year ago - partly due to higher finance costs. Revenue grew 4 per cent to S$54.52 million for Q1 2019 on the back of higher inpatient volumes and higher average bill sizes at the group's hospitals and specialist clinics in Singapore and Malaysia. The counter closed at seven Singapore cents on Monday, down 0.2 cent.

Amendment Note: An earlier version of this story quoted the wrong closing price for UMS.