SINGAPORE (Jan 10): Jeff Cheong Wei Xiong of CWX Global is no longer a substantial shareholder of the company he chairs. On Jan 3, via a married deal, Cheong sold 140 million shares at 0.5 cent each, cutting his stake from 7.25% to 3.66%.
Another CWX shareholder, Low Chui Heng, pared down his stake as well. In a Dec 26, 2019, filing, Low sold 200 million shares via a married deal at 0.5 cent, leaving him with 133.5 million shares, or 3.42% of the company, down from 8.55%. Back in December 2017, Low invested into CWX at 0.9 cent, together with Koh Wee Seng, CEO of Aspial Corp. According to the filing then, Koh holds a stake of 9.68%.
Meanwhile, a new substantial shareholder has emerged. On Jan 3, one Sakamoto Tatsuo bought six million shares via a married deal at 0.5 cent, bringing his stake to 200 million shares. From 4.97%, Tatsuo now owns 5.13% of CWX.
On Nov 7, the company reported that revenue for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2019, was US$881,000, down 51% y-o-y. Losses in the same period widened by 77% y-o-y from US$352,000 to US$624,000.
Yanlord’s Zhong resumes buying
Zhong Sheng Jian, executive chairman of developer Yanlord Land Group, resumed the purchase of shares from the market after a hiatus of more than a year. On Dec 31, 2019, Zhong paid $4.88 million for four million shares, or $1.22 each.
Zhong now holds a direct stake of 79.8 million shares, or 4.133%, of the company — up from 3.925% earlier. He holds a deemed stake of nearly 1.28 billion shares as well. This means he has a combined stake of 70.318%. In the middle of 2018, Zhong was buying actively. Prior to the Dec 31, 2019, purchases, Zhong last bought at $1.53 on July 3, 2018.
A Yanlord-led consortium is in the process of taking full control of separately listed United Engineers, which Zhong also chairs, at $2.70 per share.
Yanlord shares closed at $1.22 on Jan 7, which values the company at $2.36 billion. As at Sept 30, 2019, its net asset value was RMB13.03 per share.
For the three months ended Sept 30, 2019, Yanlord’s earnings fell 94% y-o-y to RMB58.8 million. Revenue in the same period was down 50% y-o-y to RMB2.9 billion.
Teo family of the Union Gas
Teo Hark Piang, CEO of Union Gas Holdings, on Nov 26, 2019, received some 16.9 million shares in the company from his father, non-executive chairman Teo Kiang Ang. Based on the closing price of 24.5 cents on Nov 26, 2019, the shares were worth more than $4.1 million. The younger Teo now owns 11.05% of the company, up from 3.66%. Union Gas shares closed at 24 cents on Jan 7, valuing the company at $56.1 million.
For the six months ended June 30, 2019, Union Gas reported earnings of $4 million, up 25.7% y-o-y. Revenue in the same period was $34.4 million, up 43.5% y-o-y. Besides the gas bottling and distribution business of Union Gas, the Teo family controls Trans-Cab Holdings too. With nearly 3,000 vehicles, it is the second largest taxi company by fleet size in Singapore. Trans-Cab is planning to go for its own separate IPO later this year. For the year ended Dec 31, 2018, Trans-Cab reported earnings of $9.2 million, and revenue of $138.3 million. According to UOB Kay Hian estimates, the numbers are likely to hit $12.2 million and $121.7 million respectively.
