A total of 76 primary-listed companies on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) bought back $1.65 billion worth of shares from the open market for the year to date ended Sept 11, 80% higher than the $916 million spent for the first nine months of last year.
Among the listcos, the three Singapore banks, DBS Group Holdings, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank (UOB), spent the most.
For the period, UOB paid $560.8 million for the buyback of 15.8 million shares, paying an average price per share of $35.39.
DBS was next, paying $371.1 million for 8.7 million shares, representing at an average price per share of $42.77.
OCBC rounded up the top three by paying $349.3 million for 20.95 million shares, or at an average price per share of $16.67.
The remaining stocks making up the top 10 are Keppel, Sembcorp Industries, Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering), Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings), SGX, Olam Group and Venture Corporation.
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Keppel paid $70.1 million for 8.5 million shares, at an average price per share of $8.39, while Sembcorp paid $59.1 million for 9.8 million shares or $6.05 per share on average.
ST Engineering paid $44.3 million for 6.5 million shares or $6.82 per share on average, while Yangzijiang paid $29.5 million for 15 million shares, representing an average price per share of $1.97.
SGX, Olam and Venture Corp paid $22.4 million, $20.8 million and $18 million for 1.7 million shares, 22.2 million shares and 1.5 million shares respectively. The companies’ average prices per share were $13.07, 93.5 cents and $12.29 respectively.
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Among the secondary-listed companies, Hongkong Land bought back US$176 million of shares at an average price of US$5.62, under its buyback programme announced on April 24. Repurchased shares will be cancelled by Dec 31 this year.
CDL, on June 10, repurchased 26.8 million preference shares for 78 cents apiece via an off-market equal access scheme. This was done in a bid to exercise greater control over its share capital structure, states SGX.
First-timers
Other companies such as AEM Holdings, Kingsmen Creative and Jason Marine Group filed buybacks for the first time in 2025.
“While it is likely the majority of these were for employee incentive plans, all three have relayed the role of buybacks in capital management,” says SGX.
On Sept 3, Kingsmen Creatives acquired 66,600 shares at 45 cents apiece, marking its first buyback since April 2016.
On Sept 10, AEM Holdings bought back 200,000 shares at $1.52 per share, which is its first buyback since March 2023.
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Between Sept 1 and 3, Jason Marine Group acquired 70,000 shares at an average price of 14.6 cents per share. According to the group, the buybacks were part of efforts to strengthen its market valuation and improve share liquidity.
