Three top bosses at Kingsmen Creatives have raised their stakes in the company via a married deal with an undisclosed party.
On March 2, Benedict Soh, the company’s chairman and co-founder, acquired 500,000 shares at an undisclosed price. As he also has a deemed interest of just a shade below 38 million shares held via an entity called Islanda, the acquisition brings the total number of shares he owns to nearly 38.5 million units.
Simon Ong, the company’s deputy chairman and other co-founder, also added 500,000 shares 24 cents each. This brings his direct interest to 8.84 million shares, or 4.38%. In addition, Ong has a deemed interest equivalent to 18.81% of the company.
Andrew Cheng, group CEO of the company, also acquired one million shares for $240,000. He now holds 1.66 million shares, or 0.82%, up from 0.33% previously.
On Feb 27, Kingsmen, which provides design and installation works for retailers, events and conferences, reported its first-ever loss of $11 million for FY2020 ended Dec 31, 2020, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. A year ago, it had posted $0.5 million in earnings. Revenue in the same period was down 21.6% to $286.9 million.
Cheng says that the company’s working capital position remains healthy and that its longer-term outlook is good. As at Jan 31, Kingsmen has secured contracts of $107 million, of which $90 million is expected to be recognised in FY2021. “However, as uncertainty remains, we will continue our tight cost control measures, while continuing to seek out opportunities to deliver differentiated solutions, especially in areas such as thematic and experiential attractions and branded pop-up/experiential installations as our markets recover,” says Cheng.
UK acquisition
Elsewhere, Tan Da Ching, non-independent and non-executive director of the manager of Elite Commercial REIT, has raised his stake in the REIT. On March 2, he acquired 14,000 units at GBP0.675 ($1.25) each. This brings his total units to 34,053 units, or 0.01%. A day earlier, he had acquired 20,000 units at GBP0.675 each. Tan wears another hat as an executive director of Elite Partners Capital, an investment firm that is behind the REIT.
Recently, the REIT announced the acquisition of a portfolio of 58 properties in the UK for GBP212.5 million. The vendor is Elite UK Commercial Fund II. These properties are now mainly leased to UK government departments.
On Feb 1, the REIT announced a DPU of GBP0.0249 for the 2HFY2020 ended December 2020, some 2.9% higher than its forecast of GBP0.0242. This brings FY2020 DPU — from Feb 6, 2020, to Dec 31, 2020 — to GBP0.0444 pence, or 2.3% higher than its forecast of GBP0.0434. The REIT’s 2HFY2020 profit after tax was 182.6% higher than forecast at GBP19.5 million, due to fair value gain of GBP15.9 million on investment properties.
New director raises stake
Haytham T KH S Al Essa, a newly appointed independent director of Fu Yu Corp, acquired shares of the company from the open market in the past week. On Feb 26, he acquired 230,000 shares for $65,550. On March 1, he acquired another 125,700 units for $35,824.50. The following day, he acquired yet another 171,400 shares for $48,849. He now holds a total of one million shares. According to the filings, Essa is a director of entities such as Long Gamma and Gunvor Singapore.
Fu Yu saw a change in its controlling shareholder recently. On Jan 18, Pilgrim Partners, managing a variable capital company 85% owned by one Wang Shao Ren (Wang Shao-ren) @ Ong Shao Jin, paid $58.3 million, or 26 cents per share, to Fu Yu’s founders for a combined stake of 29.8%. Essa was appointed to the board following the transaction. On Feb 23, Fu Yu reported earnings of $16.9 million, up 33.3% from $12.7 million a year ago.
