[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Thursday (Mar 13).
City Developments Ltd (CDL): The property giant’s executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng will be discontinuing his lawsuit against his son Sherman Kwek and six other members of the CDL board, he said in a statement on Wednesday. The elder Kwek will continue in his role as executive chairman, and Sherman Kwek will continue as group chief executive officer. All the current directors, including Jennifer Duong Young and Wong Su-Yen, will remain on the board. All the board members have agreed to put aside their differences for the greater good of CDL and its stakeholders, said Kwek Leng Beng. The statement brings to a close – for now – the father-son tussle that started on Feb 26. Shares of CDL were up 0.2 per cent or S$0.01 at S$4.94, before the statement was made public.
Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT): The trust has agreed to divest its logistics property at 31 Penjuru Lane for S$7.8 million, its manager said on Wednesday. The sale price is 6.8 per cent higher than the property’s latest valuation of S$7.3 million as at Nov 28. The proposed divestment is in line with the manager’s efforts to rejuvenate its portfolio through selective divestments of assets that are no longer aligned with its strategy, said the manager. JTC Corporation has granted in-principle approval for the transaction, and the proposed divestment is expected to be completed by the second quarter of FY2025/2026. Units of MLT were up 3.2 per cent or S$0.04 at S$1.29, before the announcement.
Boustead Singapore: The group’s subsidiaries have entered into a master share subscription agreement with Hong Kong-based real estate company Unified Industrial, and will form a new logistics platform called UIB. Boustead has agreed to transfer its fund and property-management businesses to Unified Industrial. As part of the agreement, Boustead’s subsidiary BP-Unity will take a 24.1 per cent stake in Unified Industrial. Around 35.5 million new ordinary shares will be issued; these will have a total subscription value of US$78.6 million. On a pro forma basis, the proposed acquisition is expected to lift Boustead’s net tangible assets attributable to owners of the company to S$524.2 million from S$502.5 million, assuming the transaction had taken place on Mar 31, 2024, at the end of the company’s last financial year. Earnings per share would have risen to S$0.168 from S$0.134. Shares of Boustead closed flat at S$1.03 on Wednesday, before the announcement.
Del Monte Pacific: The canned-food company reported a net loss of US$35.9 million for the third quarter ended Jan 31, widening from US$29 million in the corresponding period in the previous year. The net loss was primarily due to higher operational costs and increased interest expenses at its US subsidiary Del Monte Foods Corp, which negated the strong performance of its Philippine subsidiary Del Monte Philippines, said the group in a bourse filing on Wednesday. For Q3, Del Monte reported a loss per share (LPS) of US$0.0185, compared with an LPS of US$0.0149. No dividends were declared for the quarter, unchanged from before. The counter closed 1.4 per cent or S$0.001 higher at S$0.075, before the announcement.
