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Sino Land chief Robert Ng's firm joined in buying back shares.
Opinion
Robert Halili
Robert Halili

Directors plunge in to buy over holiday-shortened week

Sino Land takes advantage of continuing share price fall to add to its buy-back programme

Buying by directors surged after falling for four straight weeks, while selling plunged during the holiday-shortened week of May 13 to 16, based on filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Buyers outweighed sellers, with 20 companies recording 91 purchases worth HK$287 million, against 11 firms making 41 disposals worth HK$56.6 million. The number of purchases and their value rose sharply from the previous week's totals of 69 acquisitions worth HK$43.7 million.

Sales fell from the previous week's, with 22 companies' directors making 104 disposals worth HK$156.7 million. The buyback activity among listed firms rose, with nine firms that posted 34 repurchases worth HK$244.7 million, higher than the previous week's seven companies, 33 trades, and HK$144 million. On the buybacks side, Sino Land recorded its first repurchases since August 2012, after the stock fell by 22 per cent. Allied Overseas recorded its highest purchase price since it started its buyback programme in 2002. There were purchases by the chairmen of the property plays Henderson Land and the recently listed Golden Wheel Tiandi Holdings.

Blue chip property developer Sino Land bought back 1.3 million shares purchased from May 15 to 16 at an average of HK$12.21 each. The trades were made after a 22 per cent drop in the share price since January from HK$15.58. Another sign that the shares of Sino Land are undervalued at the HK$12 level is from the purchases by chairman Robert Ng Chee Siong earlier this year. Ng picked up 280,000 shares from April 11 to 16 at an average of HK$12.59 each, which increased his holdings to 3.152 billion shares or 53.07 per cent of the issued capital. Ng's purchase price was near the price he paid in his previous acquisition of 1.07 million shares in September 2011 at HK$12.24 each. The stock rebounded sharply after those purchases in 2011, to more than HK$14 per share in February 2012. However, the shares closed flat from the company's and chairman's purchases at HK$12.32 on Thursday.

Medical services provider Allied Overseas recorded its highest purchase price since it started its buyback programme in 2002, with 1.57 million shares purchased from May 9 to 14 at an average of HK$5.89 each. The trades accounted for 95 per cent of the stock's trading volume. The company previously acquired 46,000 shares from April 8 to 16 at HK$5.60, 80,000 shares in December 2012 at HK$4.70 and 2.57 million shares from March to November 2012 at an average of HK$4.22. The stock closed at HK$5.90 on Thursday.

Chairman Lee Shau Kee picked up where he left off in property developer Henderson Land Development in April with 4.466 million shares purchased from May 6 to 10 at an average of HK$57.15 each. The trades, which accounted for 38 per cent of the company's trading volume, increased his holdings to 1.538 billion shares, or 63.73 per cent. He previously acquired 20.6 million shares from March 26 to April 18 at an average of HK$53.28 each.

Overall, Lee has acquired 25.06 million shares worth HK$1.35 billion since March at an average of HK$53.97 each. The stock has rebounded sharply since he resumed buying in the last week of March, from HK$51.84 to HK$55.95 on Thursday.

Founder and chairman Wong Yam Yin recorded the first corporate shareholder trades in the property developer Golden Wheel Tiandi Holdings since the stock was listed on January 16, with 792,000 shares purchased from May 7 to 10 at an average of HK$1.43 each. The trades, which accounted for 37 per cent of the stock's trading volume, increased his holdings to 1.350 billion shares, or 74.94 per cent of the issued capital. The acquisitions were made after the stock fell by 30 per cent from the trading debut price of HK$2.04. Wong's purchase price was lower than the IPO price of HK$1.68. The stock closed at HK$1.41 on Thursday.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Directors plunge in to buy over holiday-shortened week
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