News in brief:
World Precision Machinery: It announced yesterday a RMB26 million contract from the automotive parts and home appliances industries, which was won in a single day -- the equivalent to 5 times the average daily new orders.
These consisted of a combination of the group’s conventional, high performance and high tonnage stamping machines. All the new stamping machines are expected to be delivered within 5 months.
World Precision Machinery is a manufacturer of precision stamping equipment in the PRC, and has now signed more than RMB 1.2 billion worth of contracts in the year to date.
“One of the main reasons for these recent increases in demand for capital equipment is the increase in foreign direct investments. As foreign multinational companies set up new factories in China, they usually tap on the well-established local supply chain for sourcing of metal stamped components.
"This leads to increased demand for our Group’s stamping machines as local suppliers expand their production capacity,” said CEO Shao Jian Jun.
Recent story: WORLD PRECISION MACHINERY is a growth stock, says CEO
Foreland Fabrictech: In what may be seen as a vote of confidence in his company, the chairman of Foreland has opted to receive scrip, instead of cash, as the company’s interim dividend.
Mr Tsoi Kin Chit has been alloted 13,710,869 new shares, the company said yesterday. This was in lieu of about S$1.37 million in cash dividend (based on his holding of 268.8 million shares).
His allotment accounted for 78% of the 17,567,732 new ordinary shares issued to shareholders who opted for scrip.
With the new shares, Mr Tsoi’s shareholding now stands at 282,551,458 shares, or 53.44% of the share capital.
The interim dividend was RMB 0.027 (equivalent to S$0.00510, based on the exchange rate of S$1:RMB5.296610).
Mr Tsoi’s move appears to be in line with the positive outlook for Foreland, whose 2Q11 net profit surged more than 10 fold to RMB38.8m from RMB3.2m.
As at 30 June 2011, the Group was in a healthy financial position with cash and cash equivalents of approximately RMB192.4 million -- and it has no borrowing.
Recent story: FORELAND: Magic show of fabric technology
Overseas Union Enterprise: This big-cap company (market cap: about S$2.1 billion) resumed its share buyback yesterday after a break of just 2 days (Monday and Tuesday).
Prior to that, it was in the market for 7 successive trading days: Between Sept 29 and Oct 7, it bought back 7,485,000 shares at a total cost of more than $15 million.
The stock price closed yesterday at $2.18, down 1 cent from the previous day.
It is at a sharp discount to its Net Asset Value of $3.09 as at June 30 this year.
