Yanlord is a developer of high-end residential property in China. Photo: Company

Yanlord Land: The luxury property developer has lost Aberdeen Asset Management as its substantial shareholder.

Aberdeen doesn’t seem too eager to hold too many shares of Yanlord Land, preferring to take quick profit on a slice of its holding.

Last Friday, Aberdeen sold 4.415 million shares, leaving it with 96.561 million shares. The transacted prices were not announced, but for that day the stock traded between $1.015 and $1.065.

With a 4.955% stake now, Aberdeen is no longer a substantial shareholder and does not need to report any further sale.

Aberdeen had emerged as a substantial shareholder on Sept 22 when it bought, at 80.01 cents apiece, 2.5 million shares of the developer of large-scale residential property developments in Shanghai and Nanjing

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Shanghai Ocean Aquarium is sited near to the landmark Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. Photo: Internet

Straco Corporation: The company continued its buying spree of its own shares, buying back 1.4 million shares at between 18.5 cents and 19 cents.

This brings the total to 1.87 million units in four days since it reported 3Q results on Nov 10.

To date, it has bought 8.178 m shares.

Straco is a developer and operator of tourism-related attractions in China, mainly the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium.

It’s a business that is not only debt-free but also enjoys strong operating cashflow.

In the first nine months of this year, its cash balance increased 22.4% to $79.66 million. The cash represents about 53% of its market cap of S$150 million.

In 9M2011, it reported $14.38 million in net profit. 3Q alone accounted for $9.53 million of that profit.

Straco has said that despite the volatility in the global economy and the Euro zone debt crisis, “our business is expected to remain robust in view of the strong domestic demand in China.”

It is not quite a S-chip as its top shareholder is Straco Holding which is 100% owned by its Singaporean executive chairman Wu Hsioh Kwang and his wife.

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LMA's CEO, William Crothers, co-founded in 1989 a distributorship in Australia that marketed LMA products. The distributorship was 80% bought over by LMA in 2007 and the remaining 20% last year. Photo by Sim Kih

LMA International: The company re-started its buyback scheme on Aug 8 and has since been regularly accumulating its shares in small quantities, totaling 2.517 million shares as of yesterday.

LMA started buying at 30.5 cents and has been nudging the stock price higher through its purchases. The highest price it has bought at is 35 cents, which was a recent closing price.

LMA reported record 9M11 revenue of US$92.7m, representing a 16% YoY increase. Net profit rose by 71% to US$13.0m if litigation settlement gains and non-cash stock compensation charges were excluded. (If included, net profit would be US$15.8 million).

LMA enjoyed strong market growth in the US and continued demand across other world markets for its laryngeal mask airway devices.

A recent Kim Eng Research report noted that LMA has been delivering stable growth and its recent valuation looked “reasonably cheap”.

If 9M11 net profit (excluding litigation gains and stock compensation charges) were annualised, the stock would be trading at FY11F PE of 7.6x (assuming stock price of 32.5 cents).

LMA, which is relatively low profile, is a leader in airway management devices with over 75% of world market share used by hospitals worldwide.

It is the pioneer of laryngeal masks, with usage of over 200 million times worldwide with not a single reported fatality. Annual usage stands at 17 million cases.

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Ong Pang Aik, chairman of Lian Beng Group. Photo by Leong Chan Teik

Lian Beng Group: Ong Pang Aik, the executive chairman, has made his first purchases of his company’s stock in more than a year.

He scooped up a total of 1.296 m shares at 34.5 cents a share.

The stock has been lethargic at around that level, despite the company reporting strong profit growth and a bulging orderbook of $859 million.

In its 1QFY12 (ended 31 Aug 2011), net profit grew 76% year-on-year to S$19.3 million. This included a one-time gain of S$7.9 million from the sale of its New Industrial Road investment property.

Revenue increased 21% year-on-year to S$135.8 million.

Cashflow from operations amounted to S$32.6 million, and contributed to its burgeoning cash and cash equivalent of S$181.4 million as at 31 August 2011.

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