[SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Wednesday (May 21).
CapitaLand Investment (CLI): The global real asset manager on Wednesday announced the launch of its first onshore master fund in China, the CLI RMB Master Fund. The fund has a total equity commitment of five billion yuan (S$921 million) and is set to contribute 20 billion yuan to CLI’s funds under management when fully deployed. The counter ended Tuesday unchanged S$2.53.
City Developments Ltd (CDL): The property developer posted first-quarter sales revenue of S$1.9 billion for its property development segment in the Singapore market, driven by the launch of its joint venture condominium project, The Orie, in Toa Payoh. Overall, the revenue translates to an increase of 85 per cent in volume and 155 per cent in sales value, said the group in its operational update on Tuesday, for the quarter ended Mar 31. The group said that its other projects continue to register good sales, including Lumina Grand, its executive condominium project in Bukit Batok, and The Myst in Upper Bukit Timah Road. The counter ended S$0.02 or 0.4 per cent lower at S$4.73 before the announcement.
Delfi: The chocolate confectioner ran up a 27.2 per cent drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to US$17 million for the first quarter ended Mar 31, from US$23.3 million the year before. Net sales fell some 0.5 per cent to US$149.8 million from US$150.7 million. In a business update on Tuesday, Delfi attributed the performance to “weaker regional currencies”, particularly the rupiah, as well as to lower sales in its agency brands business after certain agency partners in Indonesia cut back on promotional spending for their products during the period. Shares of Delfi closed flat at S$0.71 before the announcement.
SLB Development: The company’s shareholders approved the scheme resolution proposed by Lian Beng Group’s board of directors – which comprises the controlling Ong family – to acquire and privatise the property player. It is expected to delist on or around Jul 2, said its board of directors in a bourse filing on Tuesday evening. At the scheme meeting on Tuesday morning, 99 independent shareholders who make up some 96.1 per cent of the total present and voting, gave their nod of approval. This represented about 99.9 per cent of the scheme shares, higher than the approval benchmark of 75 per cent. Four shareholders, or 3.9 per cent, were against the scheme. The expected last day of trading for the counter will fall on or around Jun 12, followed by books closure at 5 pm on Jun 17. The counter closed flat at S$0.23 on Monday, before the company called for a trading halt. It resumes trading on Wednesday.
Dasin Retail Trust (DRT): The trustee-manager of DRT rebutted criticism from its former alternate director, who claimed in a resignation letter that his input was snubbed and key financial reports were not published despite his reminders, among other complaints. In a bourse filing on Tuesday, the trustee-manager set out to address the assertions Zhang Zhongming raised in an Apr 15 e-mail that saw him resigning from his position as alternate director for Zhang Zhencheng – noting that it “disagrees with his allegations”. Zhang Zhongming is the nephew of Zhang Zhencheng, who is a non-executive director and shareholder of the trustee-manager. Zhang Zhongming noted in his exit letter that he was resigning effective immediately, believing that staying in his position “serves no useful purpose”. In response to the resignee’s claim that his “requests, suggestions and feedback have been consistently ignored since early 2023 by the majority directors”, the trustee-manager maintained there were “valid reasons and grounds”. It raised examples of the resignee’s “repeated insistence that the invalid extraordinary general meeting of DRT… was valid, contrary to the legal advice received”. Units of DRT closed S$0.002 or 10 per cent lower at S$0.018 before the announcement.
