SEVERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS on share purchases in recent days looked particularly interesting.
> GK Goh Holdings: It bought back 410,000 shares yesterday at 82 cents apiece, its first buyback in 2 years.
Its stock trades at a 28% discount to its end-2011 Net Asset Value of $1.1364.
It also is trading cum-dividend -- a 2-cent final dividend and a 4-cent special dividend.
Despite the strong buyback yesterday, the question is: Is it a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence?
GK Goh, in recent years at least, doesn’t have a track record of sustained buying.
Prior to yesterday’s purchase, it had bought a million shares at 62 cents on 1 March 2010.
And before that, it bought 1.5 million shares at 42 cents apiece in three days of March 2009.
Recent story: GK GOH: Will it pay a special dividend?
Photo: Company
> Elektromotive Group: On 1 March 2012, it lodged a report with the Commercial Affairs Department relating to payments due to its 51%-subsidiary, Elektromotive UK, and an estimated loss of S$7.4 million on those transactions.
A week later, Lau Wing Tat, 57, was appointed an Independent Director of the company, which is a leading provider of technology and engineering solutions for electric vehicle recharging stations.
Just 8 days later, despite the negative news on the Elektromotive UK-related loss, he started buying shares of Elektromotive Group (formerly known as The Lexicon Group), accumulating 5.842 million shares in three days at 0.4 cent a share.
Prior to that, he held 33.1 million shares of Elektromotive, or a 1.37% stake.
Mr Lau comes with sterling investor credentials.
He was with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation from January 1983 to May 2003 and has extensive experience in managing investment teams and investment portfolios investing in equities in almost every major and minor stock market and equities derivatives markets throughout the world.
Mr Lau has also served Chief Investment Officer and, subsequently, CEO, of DBS Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of DBS Group.
> XMH Holdings: The company has stopped its relentless share buyback for about a month now, but its lead independent director, Hong Pian Tee, has recently stepped in to buy XMH shares for his own account.
He bought 284,000 shares on 3 days (16, 19 and 20 March), upping his stake to 384,000 shares worth about $62,000.
XMH is Mitsubishi’s No.1 distributor for marine diesel engines.
Prior to retiring from professional practice, he was the managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers Intrust Limited, a position he held from 1985 to 1999.
Recent story: PLASTOFORM, CHINA SKY, XMH: Latest happenings....
> Sing Holdings: Its CEO, Lee Sze Hao, bought 1.356 million shares yesterday amid a sudden enthusiasm in the market for second-liner property stocks such as Hiap Hoe Ltd and Roxy-Pacific.
Mr Lee, 49, bought shares of Sing Holdings at an average of 33.9683 cents a share.
That was a substantial 28% higher than the 26.5 cents a share that he paid on 7 Oct 2011 for 500,000 shares. In other words, he paid a lot more and bought a lot more.
In all, he now holds 8.002 million shares (2.0% stake) directly and a deemed interest in 136,490,746 shares (representing a 34.04 % stake in Sing Holdings).
At the closing price of 35.5 cents yesterday (cum dividend of 1 cent), the stock was trading close to the high end of its 52-week trading range of 20-37 cents.
It was, however, still at a 16% discount to its Net Asset Value of 41.41 cts as at end-Dec 2011.
Its RNAV is much higher – at around 71 cents a share, according to Kim Eng Research in a June 2011 report.
Related story: MENCAST, ROXY-PACIFIC : Latest happenings....
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