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SEVERAL TECH-RELATED companies, such as AEI Corp, UMS Holdings and Frencken, were heavily buying back their own shares last week.
* AEI CORPORATION: On June 14, it bought 4.8 m shares at 17 cents apiece, totaling $819,000.
This follows the purchase made on May 7 by its CEO, Ian Tan, of 500,000 shares at 16.5 cents apiece, adding to his 200,000-share purchase on Feb 24.
These were direct purchases. He also owns a deemed interest of 37 million shares equivalent to a 14.2% stake in AEI, whose market cap is $44 million.
The purchases come hot on the heels of a rebound in AEI’s profitability. For 2H09, AEI reported a $5.3 m net profit, an improvement on the $3.2 million achieved in 1H.
Overall, for FY09 (ended Dec 09), the net profit was $8.5 million compared to a loss of $5.8 m in the previous year.
AEI paid out a 3-cent final dividend (including a 2-cent special dividend), compared to a 0.75-cent dividend in FY08.
The comany manufactures aluminum extrusion sections for electronics and precision engineering, and construction and infrastructure building industries. The company also manufactures, imports, exports metal materials and other related products.
* THOMSON MEDICAL: Clariden Leu AG has emerged as a substantial shareholder when its purchase of 20,000 shares last week led it to cross over the 5% threshold. It now owns 14,608,000 shares of Thomson Medical.
Clariden Lue is one of the largest Swiss private banks and has over 250 years of experience in Swiss private banking.
Thomson’s net earnings for the half year ended Feb 2010 were up 22% at S$7.2 million year-on-year, while profit after tax margin stood at an excellent 19.1%.
Recent story: THOMSON MEDICAL's 1H profit up 22%, gets 'buy' & 'accumulate' ratings
* BEST WORLD INTERNATIONAL: The company made its first-ever share buyback last week since its listing in July 2004. There was, however, no subsequent buyback, even though the stock price has not run up from its first buyback price of 33.5 cents.
In another development, the company has proposed to issue bonus warrants at the rate of 1 for every five ordinary shares. The exercise price is 30 cents, which is lower than the recent market price of the stock of 34 cents.
This implies that the warrants are likely to be exercised, and will bring in funds for the business. Best World, however, currently has a massive net cash of $36 million (versus a market capitalization of $70 million and a historical PE ratio of 7.2).
The exercise period for the warrants is six months from the date of their listing and up to 3 years.
Best World sources, formulates, brands, and distributes a range of health and lifestyle products.
