THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Thursday (Dec 15):
Keppel (BN4): Asset manager BlackRock has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Keppel Corp after selling S$8.9 million worth of shares, lowering its stake from 5.03 per cent to 4.96 per cent.
According to a Wednesday (Dec 14) bourse filing after trading hours, BlackRock had sold about 1.2 million Keppel shares on Dec 12 via a market transaction. The S$8.9 million in proceeds translate to an average selling price of S$7.44 per share.
Keppel shares closed at S$7.48 on Wednesday, up 0.5 per cent or S$0.04.
Top Glove (BVA): Glove manufacturer Top Glove Corporation could take up to a year to return to profitability, founder and executive chairman Lim Wee Chai said on Wednesday (Dec 14), after the group posted a net loss of RM168.2 million (S$51.6 million) for the first fiscal quarter of the year ended November.
Losses for the quarter were more than triple the net loss of RM52.6 million in the previous quarter, and a reversal from earnings of RM185.7 million in the year-ago period.
Lim estimated that Top Glove’s losses will narrow in the next three months. He added that the group should break even six months from now, but profitability would come only nine to 12 months later.
CDLHT (J85): A Unit under CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT) has inked a new 10-year lease agreement with a unit of Banyan Tree Holdings for the Angsana Velavaru resort in the Maldives.
The existing lease in place expires on Jan 31, 2023, CDLHT said in a Wednesday (Dec 14) bourse filing. The rental formula and management fee terms under the new lease are the same as the existing one entered into in January 2013.
Under the agreement, the lessor will be entitled to receive rent payments equivalent to the resort’s gross operating profit less management fees retained by the lessee, subject to a minimum rent. The lessee will pay a top-up amount to make up for any shortfall in rent below the minimum rent for each year.
Samudera (S56): Samudera Shipping Line has entered an agreement to purchase the 25 per cent stake held by a joint-venture (JV) partner in LNG East-West Shipping Company (Singapore) (LNG EW) for US$14.8 million, the company announced in a Wednesday (Dec 14) bourse filing.
The deal will raise Samudera’s interest in LNG EW from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. The seller, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, will still own the remaining 50 per cent of LNG EW.
Samudera said that it wants to raise its stake in LNG EW to better realise value from the company, which is engaged in liquefied natural gas transportation. The acquisition is expected to be completed by mid-December and not seen to materially impact Samudera’s earnings per share for the current financial year.
KOP (5I1): KOP Northern Lights (KOPNL), a unit of Catalist-listed real-estate player KOP, has received payment of 158.4 million yuan (S$30.6 million) from an arbitration case involving the development of the world’s largest indoor ski resort in China, it announced in a Wednesday (Dec 14) statement.
The company had earlier received another payment from the arbitration proceedings of 235.2 million yuan (S$44.9 million) in November. After deducting expenses, KOP’s total net proceeds from the case is 392.2 million yuan.
With the latest payment, KOPNL has fully withdrawn from the development of the ski resort, called the Wintastar Shanghai resort, into which it had invested 300 million yuan.
Stamford Tyres (S29): Higher sales across South-east Asia helped mainboard-listed Stamford Tyres more than double its net profit to S$2.1 million for H1 ended October, from the S$696,000 profit in the year-ago period.
The tyre and wheel distributor’s H1 revenue was 10.2 per cent higher at S$97 million with the higher sales. However, this was partly offset by a 3.6 per cent rise in total operating expenses to S$26.1 million, as a result of higher costs for staff, marketing and distribution, finance expenses and foreign exchange.
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