Benjamin Birks, group managing director of Jardine Cycle & Carriage C07 , has increased his personal stake in the company, which is a subsidiary of the Jardine Matheson conglomerate.
On March 15, Birks acquired 11,000 shares on the open market at $24.31 each. This brings his total stake to 55,000 shares, equivalent to 0.014% of the company. The most recent transaction by Birks was on Aug 2, 2023, when he acquired 19,000 shares at $33.90 each. Birks joined the Jardine group back in 2000 and was appointed the group MD for Jardine C&C on Oct 1, 2019.
Besides Birks, controlling shareholder Jardine Matheson recently raised its stake too. On Jan 17, the Hong Kong-based company acquired 151,700 shares at $28.83 each on the open market, raising its deemed interest to 308.38 million shares, equivalent to just over 78% of Jardine C&C. The last time before this transaction, Jardine Matheson had acquired 99,400 shares on Aug 14, 2023, at $33.31 each.
In FY2023 ended December 2023, Jardine C&C reported improved numbers over FY2022, thanks primarily to its key operating unit Astra in Indonesia. Revenue increased slightly by 3% y-o-y to US$22.2 billion ($29.8 billion) although earnings were up 64% y-o-y to US$1.22 billion.
Jardine C&C plans to pay a final FY2023 dividend per share of 90 US cents. This will bring its FY2023 full-year payout to US$1.18 from US$1.11 in FY2022. Net asset value as at Dec 31, 2023, was US$20, up from US$18 as at Dec 31, 2022.
Ben Keswick, chairman of Jardine C&C, says: “The group posted another very strong overall underlying profit performance in 2023, principally reflecting Astra’s second year of record profit, despite softer commodity prices and moderating growth in the second half of the year.”
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However, the company’s businesses in Vietnam were hit by slower economic growth. “The group’s businesses remain focused on their strategic priorities to build a solid foundation for long-term growth,” he adds.
In FY2023, Astra contributed just over US$1 billion to Jardine C&C’s underlying profit, up 12% over FY2022, lifted by improved performances from most of its businesses.
On the other hand, Truong Hai Group Corporation, the key Vietnam unit, contributed just US$36 million, down 57% y-o-y, due to lower automotive profits.
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According to Bloomberg data, there are three active analyst coverage of this stock, with two “hold” calls and one recommendation to “reduce”. Among the three, HSBC’s Rahul Bhatia has the highest target price of $29.60, followed by CLSA’s Jeffrey Kiang whose target price is $25 and Macquarie’s Jayden Vantarakis, whose target price is $24.50.
Buyback continues
Singapore Technologies Engineerin S63 g has bought back shares from the market again. On March 15, the company acquired 500,000 shares on the open market at between $3.93 and $3.94 each.
This brings its total number of shares bought back under the current mandate to just over 5.88 million shares. The previous time this happened was on Feb 29 when the company acquired 500,000 shares on the open market at between $3.95 and $3.98 on Feb 29.
Other buybacks thus far this year included 500,000 shares on Jan 16 at between $3.85 and $3.87; 500,000 shares on Jan 17 at between $3.82 and $3.85, and 380,700 shares on Jan 18 at $3.77 to $3.78 each.
On Feb 29, ST Engineering reported earnings of $586.5 million for FY2023 ended Dec 31, 2023, up 9.6% over $535 million in FY2022. Revenue in the same period was up 12% y-o-y to $10.1 billion.
In 4QFY2023, the company secured new contracts of about $3.1 billion. With these new contract wins and after adjustments of revenue delivery, ST Engineering ended 2023 with an order book of $27.4 billion.
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The company has maintained its quarterly dividend payout of four cents, which will bring total dividends for FY2023 to 16 cents.
