Tan Kwee Chai, executive chairman of LY Corp, a Malaysia-based furniture maker, has increased his stake in the company.
On Nov 5, Tan, via an entity called Lian Yu Holdings which he controls, acquired 382,500 shares for $49,725.00 or 13 cents each.
With the acquisition, the number of shares held via Lian Yu increased to nearly 355.2 million shares or 72.65%, up from 72.57% previously.
In addition, Tan holds a direct stake of nearly 1.56 million shares, equivalent to 0.32%. This brings Tan’s total interest to just over 356.7 million shares or 72.97%.
Tan last acquired LY Corp shares on Aug 3, when he acquired 2.47 million shares for $395,488 in a married deal, which works out to 16 cents each.
On Sept 9, the company reported a loss of RM2.27 million ($740,000) for its 1HFY2021 ended June 30, from earnings of RM1.98 million in the year earlier. Revenue in the same period was down 10.8% to RM95.7 million.
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The company attributes the drop to Covid-19-related disruptions that flared up intermittently till November.
MAS investigations over
Derek Goh, the controlling shareholder of Serial System, has raised his stake in the distributor of electronic components.
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On Nov 5 and Nov 8, Derek bought 350,000 shares at 12.4 cents each and 100,000 shares at 12.35 cents each respectively from the open market. This brought his total stake to 365.85 million shares or 40.432%.
According to Serial System, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had recently concluded its investigations on Derek involving a “personal matter”. On Oct 5, the company announced that investigations had concluded and that “the matter is now closed”.
However, Derek was given a “conditional warning” by MAS and had stepped down as a director of the company for two years.
During his absence, Teo Ser Luck, an existing independent director, will take on the role of acting independent non-executive chairman while chief operating officer Sean Goh, who is Derek’s cousin, will be made an executive director. Derek will remain as group CEO.
On Nov 3, Serial System reported earnings of $3.4 million for its 3QFY2021 ended Sept 30, versus a loss of $395,000 in 3QFY2020. Revenue in the same period was up 13% y-o-y to $229.4 million driven by higher demand for semiconductors.
In the earnings commentary, Derek describes the performance as an indication of a “clear recovery” underpinned by stronger demand for products distributed by the company.
“Amid the ongoing supply chain disruptions, our value proposition as a trusted distributor for electronic components as well as consumer products has increased. We are adding more customers and suppliers and deepening these relationships amid a challenging environment,” he adds.
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Scooping up a hot stock
Lim Wee Kian, a director and substantial shareholder of iFast Corp, increase his stake in the company.
On Nov 3, he had acquired 45,000 shares for $389,550 or $8.66 each via a nominee account he has with DBS. On Nov 5, he personally acquired another 11,000 shares for $94,820 or $8.62 each, which he will hold directly.
As such, Lim now has a direct interest of 8.77 million shares or 3.167% and a deemed interest of 10.96 million shares or 3.957%, held via his nominee account and those held by his wife Chang Foong May.
On Sept 16, Lim sold 10,900 shares for $108,891 or $9.99 each. On Oct 23, iFast, one of the hottest Singapore stocks over the last couple of years, reported earnings of $7.6 million for 3QFY2021 ended Sept 30, up 23.3% y-o-y. Revenue in the same period was 23.4% y-o-y to $55.5 million.
The company plans to pay an interim dividend of 1.3 cents per share for 3QFY2021, up from 0.8 cents in the year-earlier period. Its total assets under administration as at Sept 30 was $18.38 billion, up 46.1% y-o-y and 2.2% year to date.
Photo of Tan Kwee Chai by Albert Chua of The Edge Singapore
