Insider moves: SunMoon’s Loh sells shares ahead of parent company’s bankruptcy filing announcement
Deputy chairman of SunMoon Food Company Gary Loh sold more than $78,000 worth of shares in the company on Oct 8 and Oct 9. That leaves him with just over 60.3 million shares, or a 7.69% stake, in the food supply chain manager. Loh sold via an entity called First Alverstone Capital, which he controls jointly with his wife Selena Cheng Koh Min. The sales were disclosed in a Singapore Exchange filing on Oct 10.
Two days after the sales, SunMoon Food announced that Shanghai Yiguo E-Commerce, ultimate parent company of SunMoon Food’s controlling shareholder, had filed for voluntary bankruptcy reorganisation in China on July 30, which was more than two months ago.
On Oct 15, the company asked for a trading suspension as it needs more time to update shareholders.
According to SunMoon Food, a group of non-executive directors including Loh only knew about the bankruptcy filing “on or around late evening of Oct 9”. SunMoon Food’s board understands that the deadline to file the creditors’ proof of debt in respect of the bankruptcy reorganisation will be on Oct 19.
Together with two other related entities, parent Shanghai Yiguo owes SunMoon Food some $12.4 million, out of the total of $13.2 million in receivables as at June 30.
Shanghai Yiguo is the ultimate holding company of Yiguo General Food, which is the 59.9% controlling shareholder of SunMoon Food. Its major customer is Shanghai Yiguo, which operates the yiguo.com ecommerce site that specialises in foodstuff.
Property sales momentum to pick up
Executive director of PropNex Kelvin Fong bought 300,000 shares at 60 cents each on Oct 8. He now holds 30.4 million shares in the real estate agency, or a 8.23% stake. Fong, one of the larger shareholders in the company, last bought PropNex shares on July 23 and 24, at 53 cents.
On Aug 12, PropNex reported earnings of $15.98 million for the six months to June 30, more than double from a year ago. Revenue in the same period was up 45.2% to $241.6 million, driven by higher commission income from project marketing services, as the property market remains well supported despite the July 2018 round of cooling measures.
“However, the group believes that with developers set to roll out more projects with competitive prices over the next few months, private new home sales might see post-circuit breaker sales momentum pick up for the remaining of the year,” says PropNex in its earnings commentary.
Shift in focus to engineering
CEO of GSS Energy Sydney Yeung Kin Bond continued to reduce his stake in the company. On Oct 8, he sold 100,000 shares for $ 5,200 on the open market. He now holds 107.26 million shares, or a stake of 21.58%. Yeung last sold 75,000 shares for $ 4,200 on Sept 10. Back on April 17, Yeung had paid $ 1.41 million for 23.5 million shares in a married deal.
GSS Energy used to control oil fields in Indonesia but pared its stake in the oil fields down to 20% before it could start full production. The company is now concentrating on its precision engineering business instead.
For the six months ended June 30, GSS Energy recorded earnings of $ 1.6 million, reversing from losses of $ 113,000 a year earlier. Revenue in the same period came in at $ 42.96 million, down 11.82%. E
Price target:
CGS-CIMB “add” $6.46
Renewable energy contract win likely a boost
On Oct 9, Keppel Corp, via its unit Keppel O&M, secured a $600 million contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of a vessel for the offshore renewable energy industry.
CGS-CIMB says it is “positive” that the company’s year-to-date orders of $907 million are ahead of its forecast of between $500 million and $1 billion for FY2020-FY2021. “We maintain our assumptions pending further discussion with the management,” CGS-CIMB head of research Lim Siew Khee wrote in a note dated Oct 9.
According to the brokerage, this contract win proves that Keppel is seeing “traction” in its focus to become a provider of renewable energy solutions.
The company’s current projects include building converter stations and substations to support the offshore wind energy industry in the German sector of the North Sea and in Taiwan, notes Lim.
The company also has a stake in Blue Tern, which is one of the world’s largest and most advanced multi- purpose offshore wind turbine installers for the UK North Sea, adds the brokerage.
Lim is keeping her “add” rating for the stock with an unchanged target price of $ 6.46. — Jeffrey Tan