Insider moves: A-Sonic directors in married deal; Mercurius chairman sells shares ahead of minimart deal
Janet LC Tan, founder and CEO of A-Sonic Aerospace, bought shares from her fellow executive director Jenny Tan Lay Yong in a married deal at an above-market price. On Aug 26, Janet acquired nearly 1.03 million shares at 80 cents each or a total of $ 822,588.80 when A- Sonic’s closing price was 57 cents. In addition, Janet also acquired 257,057 warrants at $185,081.04 or 72 cents each. Upon completion of the purchases, Janet holds nearly 33.5 million shares or 57.21%, up from 55.45% previously. She also holds nearly 8.4 million warrants, up from 8.2 million.
In a separate filing, Jenny sold 360,070 shares in a married deal at 80 cents each, gaining $288,056. She also sold 90,017 warrants at 72 cents each, gaining $64,812.24. With that, Jenny no longer holds any shares in the company.
Janet had been raising her stake before the Aug 26 transactions. On Aug 17, she acquired 31,000 shares at 63.46 cents each. Earlier on July 9 and 12, she acquired 61,200 shares at 57.598 cents and 10,000 shares at 59.45 cents on the open market. As at June 30, the company’s net asset value was 89.9 cents per share, up from 81.9 cents as at Dec 31, 2020.
The company operates two main businesses: Trading of aircraft and aircraft engines under its aviation business and it runs a logistics business.
On Aug 13, the company reported sales of US$ 192.6 million ($ 259.4 million) for 1HFY2021 ended June 30, up 62.1% y-o-y. Earnings were down 33% y-o-y to US$3.24 million from US$4.84 million. However, earnings from 1HFY2020 were boosted by a oneoff gain of US$3.9 million from the sale of an associate company. A-Sonic announced an interim dividend of 0.5 US cents although it did not pay any dividend this time last year.
In its earnings commentary, the compa
ny warns that the emerging delta variant of the Covid-19 virus and “tumultuous geopolitics” is causing economic upheaval and uncertainty. “There is still no clear visibility as to when the global trade and economy will recover to the pre-Covid-19 level. We are unable to provide any assurance at this point. We are in uncharted waters,” the company adds.
Minimart plans
Chang Wei Lu, executive chairman of Mercurius Capital, on Aug 25 sold 19.1 million shares for $843,505 or 4.4 cents each. His stake has been trimmed to 293.1 million shares or 22.1%, down from 23.54%.
Earlier, on July 13, he sold 18.4 million for $1.74 million or 9.4 cents each. On the same day, he bought back 2.54 million shares for $224,329.60 or 8.8 cents each.
The company was trying to develop a
chain of hotels but the pandemic put a halt to those plans. It now wants to own a chain of supermarkets in Malaysia instead, with a plan to pay $36 million for an entity called Songmart Holdings, which operates 12 minimarts and convenience stores under the “Songmart” brand as well as a supermarket branded “Granville”. These outlets are all located in Johor, Malaysia.
The acquisition will be funded by the sale of 200 million new Mercurius shares at 18 cents each to be given to the various owners of the outlets. No independent valuation has been conducted. The 200 million new shares will increase Mercurius’ share base by 13.1% to nearly 1.5 billion shares.
On Aug 13, the company, which has yet to generate revenue, reported losses narrowed 26% to $417,000 for 1HFY2021 ended June 30 from losses of $564,000 a year earlier.