Wong Ngit Liong, who is stepping down as the long-time CEO of Venture Corp, has increased his stake in the blue-chip contract manufacturer. On Nov 8, Wong acquired 200,000 shares on the open market for a total $3.75 million or $18.7 each.
Wong now holds around 20.65 million shares or 7.106% of the company, up from 7.037% previously.
Wong, who will remain as executive chairman, will be succeeded as CEO by Lee Ghai Keen, the current COO. Wong Chee Kheong, who is now the senior vice-president of Venture’s healthcare and wellness business, global supply base management and IT, will be appointed as the COO. The changes will take effect on Jan 1, 2022.
On Nov 3, the company reported earnings of $77 million for its 3QFY2021 ended Sept, up 2.5% q-o-q but down 4% y-o-y. Revenue in the same period was down 5.9% y-o-y to $769.9 million.
The earnings came in lower than what some analysts had expected given how the global manufacturing industry was suffering from a component shortage which weighed down on output.
Nevertheless, Venture calls its 3QFY2021 earnings “healthy and broad based”. It expects this trend to continue in the coming 12 months.
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Venture notes that there are several new products, including those designed by and unique to Venture, that will be launched worldwide. It is also expecting to ramp up production volume of new products in the coming year.
Before ex-dividend
Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Group Holdings, on Nov 8 sold 50,000 shares at $32.50 each on the open market. With the sale, he is still left with a deemed stake of around 2.05 million shares or 0.08%.
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He made the sale just days before the stock went ex-dividend on Nov 12. Entitled shareholders stand to receive an interim dividend of 33 cents per share on Nov 26.
DBS shares have recovered strongly from the pandemic. On Nov 5, the bank reported earnings of $1.7 billion for its 3QFY2021 ended Sept 30, up 31% y-o-y from $1.3 billion recorded in 3QFY2020.
While operational improvement helped, the bottom line was also lifted by a $138 million allowance write-back for the quarter, bringing the nine-month total write-back to $413 million.
In the bank’s earnings commentary, Gupta notes “our pipelines remain healthy into next year”. The progressive normalisation of interest rates in the coming quarters will be beneficial to earnings.
“Asset quality continues to be resilient and total allowances are likely to remain low. These positives will offset expected cost pressures as the economic recovery takes hold,” he adds.
Strong finish
Kevin Koo Chiang, executive chairman of regional credit data provider Credit Bureau Asia, has raised his stake in his company once again.
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On Nov 16, he acquired on the open market 5,800 shares at $1.17 each. That was one day after he had acquired 45,000 shares for the same number of shares. Koo acquired shares on Nov 11 and Nov 12 too. Koo now owns a total of just over 156.8 million shares or 68.1% of the company.
Koo was last in the open market in early September when he made his purchases on the open market over several days, including 17,600 shares for $1.2487 each on Sept 10.
For the 1HFY2021 ended June, the company reported earnings of $3.92 million, up 5.5% y-o-y from $3.72 million recorded in 2HFY2020. Revenue in the same period was up 8.5% y-o-y to $22.3 million, the company said on Aug 5.
“We are off to a great start with this set of results, and we expect to end the year with a strong finish,” says Koo, adding that the company has “a series of exciting projects” in the pipeline.
