Sunny George Verghese, co-founder and group CEO of Olam Group, has increased his stake in the agri-commodities player. On May 27, Verghese acquired 500,000 shares at about $1.47 each. On May 31, he acquired another 500,000 shares at $1.53 each. The acquisitions bring his direct stake in the company to nearly 164.52 million shares or 4.281%, up from 4.255% previously.
According to regulatory filings, the last time Verghese had bought shares from the open market was back on March 18, 2020, when he acquired 615,000 shares for $1.49 each.
Olam recently completed the re-organisation of itself into three distinct parts to unlock value for shareholders. The first unit Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) will focus on the growing demand for plant-based, sustainably-sourced and fully-traceable food ingredients. OFI is eyeing its own listing in London before a secondary listing in Singapore.
Olam Agri, the second unit, is positioned as a global food, feed and fibre agribusiness focused on high-growth emerging markets. As for Olam itself, besides playing the role of the holding company, it will also incubate new platforms of growth via Olam Ventures and build technology and shared services business.
Independent and willing
Henry Tan Song Kok, an independent director of Dyna-Mac Holdings, is now a shareholder of the company. Before the filing on May 26, Tan, who was appointed to the company’s board on Feb 1, 2021, did not hold any Dyna-Mac shares. On May 26, Tan, who is the group CEO of Nexia TS, acquired 500,000 shares for $78,600 or 15.7 cents each. His stake is equivalent to 0.049% of the company.
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Tan’s purchase comes a fortnight after Dyna-Mac’s CEO Lim Ah Cheng had acquired 168,000 shares for 14.2 cents each on May 13. Lim now holds just over 1.9 million shares. Before Dyna-Mac, Lim was previously from Keppel Corp, Dyna-Mac’s second-largest shareholder.
Dyna-Mac’s business is focused on building the topside modules of floating oil rigs built by the likes of Keppel. In its 1QFY2022 ended March business update on May 12, the company reported revenue of $67.5 million, up 64.3% y-o-y. However, 1QFY2022 earnings were down 16.6% y-o-y to $1.87 million from $2.24 million booked in 1QFY2021 when it had enjoyed one-off items such as recognising the sale of a property and booked higher government grants.
Dyna-Mac points out that it has been winning more and more contracts, including those from a “long-time repeat customer”. Two of the more recent ones announced on May 5 and April 25 were worth $270.3 million combined, bringing its net total order book to $582.7 million which will be delivered through FY2024.
“The group continues to receive very strong enquiries that may potentially add to our order book,” Dyna-Mac says. The stock is seeing heightened trading interest in recent weeks, reaching as high as 20.5 cents intraday on May 31 before closing at 19.2 cents, which is a five-year-high.
Substantial shareholder sells
Ham Yong Kwan, a substantial shareholder of alternative investment firm Uni-Asia Group, has sold some of his shares in the company after steadily buying over the last couple of years. On May 24, Ham sold nearly 1.92 million shares worth just over $2 million, which works out to $1.048 each. Ham is now left with 5.44 million shares or 6.92%. He used to hold nearly 7.36 million shares or 9.36% before the sale.
Ham’s sale was made public via a regulatory filing on the night of May 26, which was the same day the transaction was made known to Uni-Asia. Earlier that day, Uni-Asia had received an unusual trading query from the exchange.
In reply, the company said it was not aware of what might have caused the unusual activity and that it was in compliance with the relevant rules of a listed company.
Following Ham’s sale, Uni-Asia CEO Kenji Fukuyado on June 1 acquired 70,000 shares for $74,679 or about $1.07 each, raising his total stake to 1.4 million shares.
Uni-Asia invests in a range of assets including ships, office buildings and hotels. In its 1QFY2022 ended March 31 business update on May 13, Uni-Asia reported that the value of its assets as at March 31 had reached $232.5 million, up slightly from $230.7 million in the preceding quarter ended Dec 31, 2021.
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