Pang Yiu Kai, a long-time insider of the Jardine group, has increased his stake in Jardine Matheson Holdings, the listed flagship entity. On Oct 5 and 7, Pang acquired 10,000 shares for an average of US$52.83 ($71.67).
Just a couple of weeks earlier on Sept 27, Pang had acquired 100,000 Hongkong Land shares for US$4.77. Among the other positions he had held, Pang was the former CEO of Hongkong Land, a member of the Jardine group, between 2007 and 2016.
On Oct 11, Jardine Matheson announced that another insider, director David Hsu, had acquired a total of 20,000 shares. Earlier on Oct 8 and Oct 11, he had acquired 10,000 shares each day for US$53.84 and US$53.53 respectively. Before joining the Jardine group in 2011, Hsu was heading JP Morgan Asset Management’s business in Asia Pacific.
Both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land are trading at significant discounts to their book values. As at June 30, their NAV per share were US$94.17 and US$14.75 respectively.
Similarly, both companies have embarked on share buyback programmes. Hongkong Land announced plans to buy back US$500 million shares by December 2022 on Sept 6; Jardine Matheson, meanwhile, said it plans to buy up to US$250 million worth of shares by June 2022.
For 1HFY2021 ended June 30, Jardine Matheson reported a smaller loss of US$0.35 million versus a loss of US$2.09 million a year earlier. Revenue was US$17.5 billion, up 10% y-o-y. Its total revenue would have been 17% higher at US$52.5 billion if sales from various entities including associates and joint ventures were added.
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Zhou Qilin, a substantial shareholder of Ntegrator International, trimmed her stake in the company. On Oct 6, she sold 15.5 million shares for $243,623 or 1.57 cents each.
In late June, Zhou completed her subscription of nearly 187.9 million new shares placed out by Ntegrator at 1.09 cents each.
The placement made Zhou the single largest shareholder of the company. Following the sale on Oct 6, Zhou still has nearly 172.4 million shares or a stake of 14.99%, down from 13.75%.
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On the other hand, Christian Kwok-Leun Yau Heilesen, the executive director of the company, saw an increase in his Ntegrator stake. On Sept 1, Heilesen, via an entity called Mission Well, had acquired 156,200 shares on the open market for $1,874 or 1.2 cents each. This brings Heilesen’s stake in Ntegrator to 13.67% or 171.3 million shares from 13.66%.
Heilesen had assumed control of Ntegrator at the company’s annual general meeting earlier this year. Via Mission Well, he had accumulated enough shares to make him the single largest shareholder — holding more shares than many others including the long-serving directors of the company whose shareholding is extremely fragmented.
Even before the Sept 1 transaction, Mission Well was actively buying up shares. In one instance, according to a Sept 3 filing, it had acquired nearly 4.77 million shares for $56,194 and on Aug 27 and Aug 30, it had acquired 1.43 million shares and nearly 1.19 million shares for $15,686 and $13,048.20 respectively.
On Oct 5, Ntegrator, which describes itself as a leading regional communications network specialist and systems integrator, announced it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with China Mobile.
Under the agreement, the two parties will work towards a “proposed business collaboration to combine each party’s knowledge, network and industry expertise to secure and develop IT and telecommunications projects, including 5G infrastructure upgrading, in the Southeast Asian region”.
On Oct 12, Ntegrator announced it is spending HK$87.4 million ($15.2 million) to take up an 85% stake in a group of digital services companies. Separately, it is spending another HK$82.5 million to acquire a 55% interest in an online watch platform. Incredible Holdings, another Singapore-listed company controlled by Heilesen, is similarly in the luxury goods business.
For the 1HFY2021 ended June 30, the company reported revenue of $11.5 million, down 9.4% y-o-y. Despite the lower revenue, the company managed to achieve better gross profit. Both financing costs and cost of goods also fell. As such, earnings in the same period was $112,000, versus losses of $795,000 a year earlier.
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