A fund called Agate Investments has steadily been dumping its shares of e-commerce player Synagie Corporation. The fund is controlled by David Loh and Han Seng Juan, former star brokers at UOB KayHian where the duo was known as the “A-Team”.
The most recent sale was completed on Nov 11. A total of 7.3 million shares were sold for $1.45 million, or an average of 19.8 cents. With the sale, Agate is left with just below 9.78 million shares, equivalent to 3.2%, down from just over 17.1 million shares, or 5.59%. At below 5%, there is no more obligation for the shareholders to declare any new sales.
Loh and Han’s fund invested in Synagie before its listing back in 2018. According to its IPO prospectus, the duo had acquired 30.37 million shares for over $1.26 million, or 4.16 cents each.
There had been a series of disposals earlier. On Sept 28, Oct 1 and Nov 9, Agate sold 10 million shares for $2.08 million, 5.26 million shares for just over $1 million, and around 2.56 million shares for $511,660 respectively.
In August, Synagie’s founders including CEO Clement Lee Shieh-Peen, executive directors Zanetta Lee Yue and Tai Ho Yan offered to buy the company’s ecommerce business with the help of Meranti Asean Growth Fund, a fund managed by Gobi Partners for $61.7 million. On Nov 5, the transaction was completed and the three founders stepped down from their appointments in the company.
From the sale of the proceeds, shareholders as of Nov 13 can receive a special dividend of 10.28 cents per share. In addition, the company plans to return cash of 8.86 cents per share via a capital reduction exercise. The company will be changing its name from Synagie Corporation to V2Y Corporation V2Y . All the developments were approved by Synagie shareholders at an EGM on Sept 28.
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Better margin
Lee Chee Seng, executive director of Jiutian Chemical Group, recently bought shares in the company. On Nov 13, he acquired one million shares for $90,000. With the acquisition, Lee now has a direct stake of 11.25 million shares, or 0.566%. In addition, Lee has a deemed stake of 44.42 million shares held via his nominee account at Credit Suisse. In total, he holds 55.67 million shares, or 2.8% of the company.
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On Oct 27, the company announced it had completed the placement of 170 million new shares at 6.03 cents each, raising some $10.25 million. The issue price was a discount of around 5.63% off the last traded price of 6.39 cents on Oct 15, before the placement was announced. The company now has a total issued share base of nearly 1.99 billion shares.
Jiutian plans to use proceeds from the placement to strengthen its financial position and improve its shareholder profile. All the proceeds will be used for its general working capital which may include investments in asset enhancement and improvement should such need arises.
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On Nov 11, Jiutian announced that revenue for the 3Q ended Sept 30 was up 9% to RMB267 million ($54.6 million). However, it enjoyed lower cost of raw materials and its gross margin during the quarter improved from 8% to 31%. As a result, Jiutian’s earnings for the period surged to RMB51.9 million from RMB2.4 million a year ago.
On Nov 13, Chan Heng Fai, executive chairman of Alset International, acquired one million shares for $61,000, bringing his direct stake to just below 191.2 million shares, or 12.33%. in addition, he has a deemed stake of 918.73 million shares, giving him a total stake of some 1.11 billion shares, or 71.61%. Earlier, on Nov 3, he had acquired 1.5 million shares for $90,495.
Alset International, formerly known as Singapore e-Development, has diverse interests in areas ranging from residential development, biohealth, REITs asset management, cybersecurity and most recently, digital information. For the six months to June 30, it narrowed its losses to $36,000 from $2.67 million a year ago.
