Lim Chung Chun, executive chairman of iFast Corp, saw an increase in his stakeholdings following the financial services firm’s 1QFY2023 ended March earnings.
On May 5, a nominee account belonging to Lim bought 20,000 shares on the open market at $85,770 or nearly $4.30 per share each. On May 8, the nominee account acquired another 2,700 shares for $11,691.00 or $4.33 each.
The transactions bring Lim’s deemed interest to just over 19.5 million shares. In addition, Lim holds a direct stake of another 40 million shares. This gives him a total interest of around 59.5 million shares, equivalent to 20.151%.
Before the May 5 and 8 transactions, Lim’s most recent buying from the open market was on July 26, when he acquired 34,100 shares for $129,474.00 or around $3.8 each.
On April 25, iFast reported earnings of $2.98 million for 1QFY2023, down 48.1% from a year ago. iFast blames the drop on start-up costs from UK-based iFast Global Bank.
In addition, the total value of assets under administration dropped too. Revenue for the same period was up 1.9% y-o-y to $53.9 million. While the company collected lower brokerage fees, it enjoyed a 522.4% jump in interest revenue.
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“While markets continued to be volatile in 1QFY2023, net inflows of client assets remained positive, coming in at $329 million,” says iFast. “The group sees net inflows of client assets as the most important indicator of its long-term growth potential.”
iFast Global Bank was launched just a day before the earnings announcement. The digital bank lets users open a UK digital bank account online without having to be physically present in the UK before they can access deposit services, including fixed-term, notice deposits and multi-currency deposits.
UOB in buybacks
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United Overseas Bank (UOB) U11 has been buying back shares on several days this month. On May 8, 9 and 10, UOB bought back 72,000 shares on the open market at between $28.17 and $28.44, 72,000 shares between $28.12 and $28.44, and 72,000 shares at between $28.03 and $28.44 each respectively.
The last time UOB bought back shares before May was on Dec 10 when it paid between $26.69 and $26.84 each for 72,750 shares.
Among the three local banks, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) O39 is known to be the one actively buying back shares, but not DBS Group Holdings D05 and UOB.
On April 27, UOB reported yet another record quarterly earnings. In 1QFY2023 ended March 31, the bank reported earnings of $1.58 billion, up 74% y-o-y. Total income was up 49% y-o-y to $3.52 billion.
Yew Kee’s Seah family
The Seah family that controls F&B company YKGI, which is known for its Yew Kee brand of duck rice, has been making regular nibbles from the open market. The family is led by chairman Seah Boon Lock, who owns 70% of an entity called Seah & Family, which in turn holds more than 76% of the YKGI shares.
On May 2, Seah & Family acquired 148,700 shares for $20,052.20 or around 13.5 cents each.
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The following day, it acquired another 370,000 shares for $52,262.50 or 14.1 cents each. On May 4, it acquired another 140,000 shares for $20,169.80 or 14.4 cents each.
The most recent buying was on May 9, when it acquired 100,000 shares for $14,355 or just over 14 cents each. This brings their total interest to nearly 326.8 million shares or 76.88%.
YKGI was listed in February at 20 cents each. Thus far, the share price has been trading below its IPO price. The stock reached as low as 12.3 cents on April 26 before closing at 13.5 cents on May 10.
On March 30, YKGI reported FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2021, revenue of $56.2 million, up 0.2% from FY2021. However, earnings dropped by 51.8% y-o-y to $4.3 million because of higher costs of various kinds. The company plans to pay an interim dividend of 0.51 cent per share, equivalent to half of its earnings.
