Modern Beauty boss sells down stake for HK$82.8m

Modern Beauty Salon Holdings chairwoman Joyce Tsang Yue sold HK$82.8 million worth of the beauty salon operator's shares yesterday, just eight months after it went public, market sources said.

Ms Tsang cashed in 72 million Modern Beauty shares at HK$1.15 each, a 7.3 per cent discount to the stock's closing price yesterday, a term sheet sent to fund managers said. That represents 10 per cent of the total issued shares and reduced Ms Tsang's stake in the company she founded to 65.17 per cent.

Sun Hung Kai Securities, which sponsored the firm's initial offering in February, arranged the sale.

After the disposal, Modern Beauty shares fell 0.8 per cent to close at HK$1.24 but still 24 per cent above the offer price of HK$1.

The company reported 16.5 per cent growth in net profit to HK$122.5 million for the year to March as turnover rose to HK$498 million after it opened more outlets.

As of March this year, the firm had 17 beauty salons in Hong Kong with a total gross floor area of 225,000 square feet and 154,000 registered customers.

Ms Tsang joined other insiders and institutions taking advantage of the surging market and ample liquidity to sell their holdings ahead of the official launch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's US$19 billion mega share sale, a fund manager said.

Last week, the parent of both South China Morning Post and Kerry Properties sold 50 million shares in the developer for HK$1.4 billion. Separately, an institutional investor sold its entire 3 per cent stake in China Resources Power for HK$904 million.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index reached a fresh six-year high on Thursday, closing at 17,907.67 points. Yesterday, it fell 1.27 per cent to end at 17,675.24 points.