Goi Seng Hui, executive chairman of GSH Corporation, has raised his stake in the company. The most recent purchase was on April 10, when he acquired 87,200 shares on the open market for $14,086.29 or 16.2 cents each. This brings his total stake to nearly 1.252 billion shares, or 63.98%, up from 63.97% previously.
Less than a week earlier, on April 5, he had acquired 115,100 shares for $19,030.63 or 16.5 cents each.
Besides undertaking property development, GSH Corp operates resorts at Kota Kinabalu. It has a trading and distribution arm as well.
According to the company, these various businesses were affected by the pandemic, although with China’s reopening and international travel resuming, it will be “very positive” for the company’s property and resort businesses.
On April 11, GSH Corp warned it had incurred three years of consecutive losses and might thus be placed on the SGX Watch-list.
In FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2022, the company narrowed its losses by 11.4% from $21 million to $18.6 million. Revenue in the same period was down 10.1% to $86.1 million.
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At around the same Goi increased his stake in GSH Corp, he also increased his stake in JB Foods too. The cocoa seller is one of the various listed companies in which Goi is known to hold a substantial stake. On April 6, he acquired 111,900 shares for $58,188 or 52 cents each. This brings his total interest to just over 74.4 million, or 24.53%, up from 24.5% previously.
Earlier on March 14, Goi had acquired 41,400 shares for $21,528 or also 52 cents each.
Besides Goi, Tey How Keong, the CEO of JB Foods, also increased his stake recently. On March 2, Tey, via an off-market deal, acquired 120,800 shares for $60,400. This brings his total stake, consisting of both direct and deemed stakes, to nearly 142.3 million, or 46.93%, from 46.89% previously.
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On Feb 27, the company reported earnings for FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2022 was up 20.5% y-o-y to US$16.68 million ($22.19 million) from a year ago. Revenue in the same period was up 13.6% y-o-y to US$509.6 million, led by a higher volume of processed cocoa ingredients sold.
“We are making good progress in executing our ongoing strategy to expand organically through our existing capabilities and facilities,” says Tey in his earnings commentary.
JB Foods plans to pay a final dividend of 1.6 cents, on top of the interim dividend of 0.2 cents already paid.
A return to normalcy
Jen Shek Chuen, a substantial shareholder of Southern Packaging Group, has been steadily increasing his stake in the company. Most recently, on April 4, he acquired 49,800 shares at 45 cents each on the open market, raising his total stake from 22.95% to 23.02%, or about 16.19 million shares. At this level, the shares are trading at less than a third of the company’s net asset value of RMB7.63 ($1.47) as at Dec 31, 2022.
Jen first invested in the company’s IPO back in 2004 and has steadily increased his stake buying from the open market over the years.
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China-based Southern Packaging manufactures a range of packaging products used across various industries. For FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2022, the company reported revenue of RMB603.5 million, down 21.5% from a year ago, on lower demand amid the pandemic.
Due to a combination of higher labour, finance and raw material costs, and unfavourable forex, the company incurred a loss of RMB36.3 million, reversing from earnings of RMB14 million in FY2021.
Despite the losses, the company expects business conditions to improve in the current FY2023. “With most of the world beginning to learn to live with Covid-19, the group expects that the Chinese economy activities will gradually return to normal,” states Southern Packaging.
The company says it has established strategic partnerships with certain new multinational customers and new products will be continuously developed to achieve mass production in the current and following years which will provide support for its performance in the current FY2023 and onwards.
