Andrew Worden

 

ANDREW BARRON WORDEN is a US fund manager whose name increasingly surfaces as a substantial shareholder of S-chips in Singapore.

The latest S-chip he is buying into is Changtian Plastic & Chemical, which manufactures chemical-based products serving the packaging, water treatment and oil sectors.

The company announced yesterday (Feb 8) that Andrew Barron Worden has crossed the 5% shareholding threshold with a 3,081,000 share purchase on Feb 4 and 5 at 20.2 cents apiece.

His total shareholding together with the funds managed is 34,911,000 shares, or 5.29%.

Mr Worden, 44, is chairman and CEO of Barron Partners LP, which is a private investment fund specializing in micro-caps (barronpartners.com/management.html).

On his sparse website (andrewworden.net/), he says he has more than 20 years of experience founding, managing, analyzing and investing with public and private companies

Barron and Mr Worden’s other holdings:

* China Kunda: 9.37% stake, or 33 million shares.

* Sinotel Technologies: Last reported on Aug 31 to be holding 4.33% or 12.2 million shares, which was a comedown from 5.05%. Since Barron and Worden had ceased to be a substantial shareholder, they no longer had to declare their shareholding.

Similarly with China Kunda: Barron and Worden has sold off at least some holding within months. In late Dec, they sold 500,000 shares of China Kunda.

Recent news on Changtian:

* No-go for TDR: On Feb 3, the company announced it would not be proceeding with its efforts to list its shares under as TDRs in Taiwan.

Reason given: Likely delays in the processing of the application for the listing of and quotation for the TDRs, as the Company has more than 30% of its shareholding interests held by nationals of the People’s Republic of China.

* Strong Q3 (July-Sept 09) recovery: Its revenue more than doubled to RMB173.1 million quarter-on-quarter while net profit jumped 206% to RMB38.2 million.

Gross profit margin increased from 22.8% in 2Q09 to 28.3% in 3Q09. Suggesting that the quarter-on-quarter recovery could be sustained, Changtian said it was “poised to capture business opportunities and increase market share.”

Still, note that the historical PE of 3.4 is deceptive. Earnings per share for 9M 09 was down 63%, so the PE based on 2009 results will be higher than the 3.4 based on 2008 results.