Meanwhile, Irene Tay — one of the company’s executive directors — also recently bought shares. On June 30, Tay paid 70.082 cents each for 30,000 shares, bringing her total interest to 1.03 million shares, or 1.45%.
Tan and Tay’s buying came just after the company was granted approval-in-principle on June 29 by the Singapore Exchange to exit the watch list after five years. The company was put on the list in June 2017 after recording losses for the three previous consecutive financial years.
While it struggled in the past years, A-Sonic — which is in the logistics, aviation and supply chain business — has staged a turnaround.
Earnings for FY2021 ended December 2021 was $8.9 million, versus $8.7 million recorded in the preceding FY2020. Operating profit, excluding non-recurring items, was $12.65 million and $2.345 million for FY2021 and FY2020 respectively. Revenue in the same period was up 74.8% to a record of $617.3 million.
The company’s cash and equivalent, as at end Dec 31 last year, was $53.27 million. This exceeds its current market cap of around $49 million, which — in turn — meets one of the minimum $40 million required of companies exiting the watch list.
Oxley’s overseas focus
Property developer Oxley Holdings has been steadily buying back its own shares. It was in the market every other day in June and the buying continued into July. Oxley bought at prices as low as 15.8 cents — as it did on June 22, to as high as 17 cents, as it most recently did on July 6, when it paid between 16.9 cents and 17 cents for 100,000 shares. As of July 6, Oxley has bought back nearly 3.18 million shares allowed under the current mandate.
In an update on July 4, Oxley says that as of June 27, it has almost finished selling its portfolio of Singapore projects of 3,593 units. The company will now pay more attention to its overseas projects, which is slated to recognise $305 million in unbilled contract value when these projects achieve their TOP. Oxley plans to focus its property development activities in developed countries, such as the UK and Ireland that it says “are relatively more politically stable and transparent.”
“With the completion of the Singapore and overseas development projects, Oxley looks forward to a bountiful harvest in 2022 and 2023,” says executive chairman and CEO Ching Chiat Kwong. “The group’s strategy of focusing on developed markets with higher profit margins as well as lowering its gearing ratio will propel Oxley forward to the next stage of sustainable growth.”
Sarine refines its business model
Diamond equipment maker Sarine Technologies is another company making a series of buybacks. The most recent transaction was on July 6, when the Israel-based company paid between 41.5 cents and 42 cents each for 12,000 shares. This brings the cumulative number of shares it bought back under the current mandate to 611,700 shares.
Sarine, which is listed first on the Singapore Exchange and then on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has been steadily buying — albeit in modest quantities for most of May and June — mainly paying for the buyback, which is just above its 52-week-low of 40 cents.
On May 23, the company announced it is refining its business model, offering its Galaxy family of scanning and inclusion mapping machines as a so-called “Pay Per Value” service. This is different from its existing “Price-Per-Carat”, which charges customers solely based on the weight of the scanned stones. The scanning is so that the quality of the stones can be better determined and a more accurate value accorded.
Sarine says the existing “Price-Per-Carat” model has “often created conditions where it was less economical, or even economically unviable, to scan even large lower quality rough diamonds.” Sarine also claims its existing technology can make it more effective to scan lower quality stones, otherwise which would not have been sent by owners for scanning.
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