Seatrium on June 12 bought back 1.2 million shares on the open market at 12.4 cents each. This marks the first time it is doing so after becoming the combined entity of Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore and Marine.
The last time Sembcorp Marine bought back shares was a year ago on June 15, 2022, when the company acquired 4.01 million shares for 11.6 cents each on the open market.
Following the merger with Keppel O&M, Seatrium has around 68.2 billion shares in total. The bigger portion of shares Keppel Corp BN4 received for its stake in Keppel O&M has been distributed in specie to its shareholders although it retained some Seatrium shares as well.
Seatrium’s maiden share buyback took place days after Keppel Corp further reduced its stake in Seatrium. According to a June 8 filing, Keppel Corp on June 5 sold 42 million shares for a total of $5.16 million, which works out to 12.3 cents each.
According to Seatrium’s June 8 filing, Keppel Corp has a stake of 3.37% in Seatrium, which is below the 5% mark where transactions are required to be disclosed.
Temasek Holdings, the controlling shareholder of both Seatrium and Keppel Corp, holds a deemed stake of 38.99% in Seatrium, down from 39.05%. It holds a stake of just over 20% in Keppel Corp.
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High trading interest
Trading interest in Seatrium has been consistently high. The counter is often the daily top volume counter. Since the start of the year, Seatrium has announced a slew of order wins, bringing its current order book to more than $20 billion.
On June 1, Singapore Exchange S68 announced that Seatrium would be added to the Straits Times Index as one of the 30 component stocks, given its market cap of nearly $9 billion. To recap, it had not been all smooth sailing for Seatrium these years. For years, it was mired in losses but a turnaround is expected in the coming FY2024 ended December 2024. However, on May 31, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau announced it has launched an investigation into Seatrium after receiving information on some alleged corruption offences in Brazil.
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JEP sees insider trading
Andy Luong, executive chairman of JEP Holdings, increased his stake in the company earlier this month. On June 9, Luong acquired 600,000 shares on the open market at 31 cents each. This brings his direct stake in the company to 2.21 million shares, equivalent to 0.51%, up from 0.37%.
In addition, Luong holds a deemed interest in another 73.85% of JEP Holdings. The shares are held directly by UMS Holdings, where 558 558 Luong is also the executive chairman who owns 17.5887% of the company. The latest transaction gives him a total interest of 74.36% in JEP Holdings, up from 74.22%. Earlier on June 7 and 8, Luong had acquired 250,000 shares at 30 cents each and 120,000 shares at 30.9 cents each respectively.
On Feb 28, JEP reported FY2022 ended December 2022 revenue of $82.6 million, up 8.8% from FY2021. However, earnings fell to $7.6 million from $7.9 million in FY2021.
The company attributes the lower earnings to lower margins in the second half of FY2022. In addition, the bottom line was affected by unfavourable forex movements, specifically, a weaker US dollar. “Despite the short-term weakness, the longer-term prospects remain strong,” notes the company in its earnings commentary.
