SHARES OF Lian Beng Group have become the target of purchases by insiders in the past one year as the company’s profitability continued to march upward.
This month (Nov 2012), Ong Sek Chong & Sons Pte Ltd bought 2 m shares of the construction company-cum-property developer.
This is an Ong family investment vehicle named after Ong Sek Chong, the company's founder and the father of Lian Beng's current chairman and MD Ong Pang Aik.
Ong Pang Aik himself bought shares of Lian Beng between Nov 2011 and May 2012, scooping up 2,096,000 shares.
His purchases in Nov 2011 were his first in about a year, as his prior purchase was way back in October 2010.
The stock, currently at 38 cents, has a dividend yield of 5.3% (ie, based on a 2-cent-a-share payout in FY2012) and trades at PE of 4.6 and 0.83 price-to-book.
Its market cap is S$201 million.
Recent story: LIAN BENG: 1Q2013 numbers fall on delayed recognition of industrial project
OCEANUS GROUP: Strategic investor no longer substantial shareholder
A strategic investor of Oceanus Group has sold a big chunk of shares, paring its holding from 11.03 % to 4.77 % on 9 Nov 2012.
The investor, Great Ocean Partners, is left with 121.8 million shares after selling 100 million shares to one unnamed party and 60 million shares to another unnamed party.
The transactions were done at the rock bottom price of 3 cents a share.
In its hey-day at the end-2009 and in early 2010, Oceanus shares traded above 40 cents.
The Oceanus shares were bought by Great Ocean Partners at 7.2 cents apiece in August 2012 under a loan restructuring exercise.
Mr Wilson Ngan Swee Yong, a co-founder of leading premium abalone brand, Skylight Abalone, has a deemed interest in Great Ocean Partners.
Mr Ngan still holds a direct interest in Oceanus of 17.5 million shares, or a 0.69% stake.
He has been a shareholder even as far back as 2008 when Oceanus was listed via a reverse takeover.
At that time, he took up 14 million placement shares at 20 cents apiece on top of 5 million shares that he already held.
For some background on the troubles that have assailed Oceanus in the recent past, read:
@ OCEANUS AGM: Strategy for recovery and 'very good result' in 2015
@ OCEANUS AGM: Rare case, ex-CEO voted out of board