Tan Chwee Choon, an executive director of Hyphens Pharma International, has been steadily selling shares on the open market. The most recent sale was made on July 22 when he sold 500,000 shares for $300,000, or an average price of 60 cents each. With this sale, he is now left with around 38.45 million shares, or 12.8%, down from 12.96% previously.
Previously, Tan had sold two million shares at 44.49 cents each on July 14; 1.34 million shares at 33 cents each on June 23; 500,000 shares at 38.5 cents each on June 2 and one million shares at 33 cents each on June 1.
On July 20, PhillipCapital initiated coverage on Hyphens Pharma with a call to “accumulate” and target price of 43.5 cents. Analyst Tay Wee Kuang notes that the company is the sole regional product owner of a portfolio of products, in partnership with brands such as Sofibel and Guerbet. In addition, the company is also developing its own suite of dermatological and health supplement products through its brands Ceradan, TDF and Ocean Health, which is sold in Guardian and Watson’s.
On July 13, the company announced that it received a UK patent for its Ceradan Advanced treatment for eczema-prone skin. Besides the UK, the same patent is pending approval in 13 other countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Europe and US. In 1QFY2020 ended March 31, Hyphens Pharma reported earnings of $2.1 million, up 48.6% y-o-y. Revenue in the same period was 16.4% higher y-o-y at $31.4 million, thanks to stronger sales growth from its own brands.
Elsewhere at Vibropower Corporation, Chng Beng Hock has emerged as a substantial shareholder of power generating equipment provider.
Chng first emerged as a substantial holder on June 15 when he bought 162,000 shares at 12.63 cents each. This brings his holdings — which also consists of two million shares held through Phillip Securities — to just over 2.82 million shares, or 5.235%, from 4.935% previously.
Since then, Chng has steadily bought more shares. This included June 17 when he acquired 108,300 shares at 12.743 cents each; June 24 when he acquired 522,000 shares at 12.944 each; and most recently on July 17 when he acquired 64,400 shares at 14.4 cents each. Chng now holds 5.25 million shares, or 9.741%.
In FY2019 ended Dec 31, 2019, Vibropower sank into a red with losses of $2.9 million, versus earnings of $448,000 in FY2018. This after revenue dropped to $11 million from $15.5 million.
Quick flip from Synagie shareholder
E-commerce player Synagie Corporation shareholder Yap Shiaw Wei, also known as Ye Xiaowei, also bought and sold shares in the company recently. On July 13, he acquired 523,000 shares at 19.1 cents each on the open market. With the purchase, his stake stood at 15.4 million shares, or 5.03%, up from 4.86% previously. However, three days later on July 16, Yap sold 4.5 million shares at 18 cents, or a total of $817,740.
On June 15, Synagie announced a partnership with media investment group GroupM Asia Pacific, which is part of media and advertising conglomerate WPP. Under terms of this partnership, Synagie will provide end-to-end e-commerce platform store management and fulfilment services for GroupM’s clients in the region, and help them set up their online presence and sell across multiple digital platforms across Southeast Asia.
For the fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2019, Synagie reported 20.6% higher revenue of $19.4 million from a year ago. However, losses widened by 14.4% from $7.4 million to $8.5 million.
