Insiders at iFast Corporation have been buying shares of their company on the open market. They include executive chairman Lim Chung Chun as well as executive director Dennis Goh Bing Yuan.
The most recent transaction was by Lim on March 11 when he acquired 50,000 shares for $281,600, or an average of $5.632 each. With the acquisition, Lim’s total stake, consisting of shares he holds directly and those he is deemed to have an interest in, totalled 60.92 million units, or 22.028% of the company, up from 22.01% previously.
On March 3, executive director Goh acquired 10,000 shares for $58,500, bringing his total stake to 976,352 shares, or 0.354%, from 0.35% previously. On Feb 24, Lim himself acquired 40,500 shares on the open market for $228,361, or an average price of $5.64 each.
Despite losing the bid for a digital bank licence in Singapore late last year, iFast was one of the best-performing stocks in the past year or so. The company, which started in distributing unit trusts to retail investors, has over the years built up a scale and scope that far exceeds the original business. It offers a wide range of products and asset classes across the region, catering to both high-end and mass-market customers.
On Feb 5, iFast reported earnings of $21.15 million for the FY2020 ended Dec 31, 2020, up 122.3% from $9.52 million recorded for FY2019. Revenue in the same period was up 35.5% from $125.4 million to $170 million. As of Dec 31, 2020, the company’s net inflow of assets under administration increased by $3.16 billion to $14.45 billion.
On Jan 29, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority of Hong Kong announced that it has awarded PCCW Solutions with the contract for the design, build and operation of the eMPF Platform, which is meant to standardise, streamline and automate the MPF scheme administration processes to create room for fee reduction and a predominantly paperless experience in the MPF System. iFast is PCCW’s prime subcontractor and more details will be finalised and announced.
See also: test generate auto url
Savvy investor Sam Goi
Executive chairman of GSH Corp Sam Goi, known for taking significant stakes in various other listed companies, has increased his shares in Hanwell Holdings. On March 10, Goi acquired nearly 1.09 million shares for $408,752.05, or an average of 37.7 cents each. He now holds just over 124.8 million shares, equivalent to 22.55%, up from 22.36% previously.
See also: Test Billion Dolar Team
Last month, Goi was busily buying Hanwell shares too, albeit at lower prices. On Feb 5, he acquired 800,000 shares for 27.5 cents each. On Feb 3, he acquired another 888,300 shares at the same price. According to a Feb 2 filing, he also acquired some 2.1 million shares and 1.174 million shares for 27.39 cents and 27.5 cents respectively. The dates of those two transactions were not specified.
Goi, who was previously represented on Hanwell’s board by his son Goi Kok Ming, took on the chairman role of Hanwell on March 8, following the resignation of Allan Yap as executive chairman last September.
On Feb 25, Hanwell reported earnings of $22.2 million in FY2020 ended Dec 31, 2020, up 267.2% from FY2019’s $6.1 million, thanks to better margins from its packaging products business, held under its separately-listed subsidiary Tat Seng Packaging Group. Revenue in the same period was up 4% to $471.4 million, with growth driven by higher sales of consumer foodstuff.
