SUNPOWER: Artur sells but Asdew buys

Sunpower’s stock has been suffering from an overhang since substantial shareholder Artur Jurczakowski started offloading his holding. The stock price was about 40 cents when he started selling in Feb 2011. It has been battered down to about 20 cents now. Chart: Bloomberg


SUNPOWER GROUP’S substantial shareholder Artur Jurczakowski has been regularly offloading his shares -- but a Singapore fund, Asdew Acquisitions, has upped its stake in the past year.

Jurczakowski's latest announced disposals took place in February 2013, when he sold 1.4 million shares at an average price of 20 cents on the 5th and 19th. His interest has dipped below 5%.

Asdew Acquisitions, on the other hand, upped its stake in Sunpower from 3.57% as at 9 March 2012 to 4.29% as at 8 March 2013. Just check out the annual reports.

Asdew Acquisitions is a fund predominantly owned by former Kim Eng director Alan Wang.

In February 2013, Asdew emerged as a cornerstone investor of Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, one of the largest ever REIT IPOs in Singapore.

Last month, the fund also took a placement of new shares issued by Sino Grandness Food Industry.

The placement increased Asdew's interest in the manufacturer and distributor of bottled juices and canned fruit & vegetables by 8 million shares to 18.8 million, making it a substantial shareholder with a 6.4% stake.

Major shareholder Guo Hongxin founded the company and now holds 23%. Executive directors Li Lai Suo own 21.0%, and Ma Ming, 17.36%. NextInsight file photo

Since then, investors have chased Sino Grandness' stock price up by a whopping 39% to reach a historical high of S$1.26 on 19 April.

Will Asdew's interest in Sunpower work similar magic?

First, investors may have to wait out Jurczakowski's disposals.

Jurczakowski held 10.85% when he started his open market sales on 28 February 2011. He was still its fourth largest shareholder with a 4.86% stake as at 19 February 2013.

Sunpower's stock price was about 40 cents when Jurczakowski started selling in February 2011.

Each transaction was between 20,000 and 40,000 shares and took place about twice a month.

These regular share disposals battered the stock down to about 20 cents.

Last week, it plunged to a 3-year low of 16 cents before recovering to 17.5 cents.  At this price, the dividend yield is 0.86% and price-earnings ratio is only 3.5 times for FY2013 (Bloomberg data).

For FY2012, it is proposing a first and final dividend of 0.15-cent that is payable on 31 May.

In FY2012, its revenue decreased 6.1% to Rmb 1,173.3 million while net profit decreased 33.2% to Rmb 60.7 million.

The good news is: Gross profit margin increased from 21.9% to 25.1% due to better margins on heat pipes and heat pipe exchangers.

The company’s order book remained strong.  It was Rmb 1.12 billion as at 26 February 2013.

Being a member of both China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (“SINOPEC”) materials supply network and China National Petroleum Corporation first-tier network, Sunpower is pre-qualified to supply products to companies in the SINOPEC and CNPC groups.

Last year, Sunpower secured substantial contracts from long-term customers in various sectors, including Sinopec Hubei fertilizer, Xining Special Steel, Ningbo Haiyue and China Huanqiu.

It also penetrated the Mexican market in August 2012, providing key equipment to Braskem Idesa, a JV between Brazilian Braskem, the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the US and the eighth largest in the world, and Mexican Grupo Idesa.

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