Delistings accelerate on SGX; CapitaLand Investment, iFast dive

Straits Times

05-05-2025

In 2025, so far, at least nine companies have announced potential delistings. PHOTO: ST FILE
SINGAPORE – Four Singapore Exchange (SGX) companies announced privatisation offers last week, taking the number of companies that have received such offers in 2025 to at least 11.
While most of the companies received offers from major shareholders citing poor trading liquidity as the main reason for privatisation, one firm – gaming hardware distributor Ban Leong Technologies – received an offer last week from a third-party acquirer with no prior relationship to the company.
Singapore gaming company Epicsoft Asia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed gaming giant GCL Global, on April 30 made an offer to take Ban Leong private for 60.29 cents a share in cash.
The offer price represents a premium of 60.8 per cent over Ban Leong's last transacted share price of 37.5 cents before the offer was made.
GCL Global's chief executive Sebastian Toke told The Straits Times that the company sees strong strategic value in acquiring Ban Leong, citing its distribution strength in South-east Asia and growth in commercial and e-commerce segments as qualities not fully reflected in its share price.
'Both Epicsoft Asia and Ban Leong are born and bred Singapore firms with a strong presence in interactive entertainment software and gaming-related hardware, respectively, in Asia,' Mr Toke said.
'The acquisition will combine the strengths of both companies in ways that would enable GCL to expand its global strategy in developing and marketing differentiated gaming products.'
Epicsoft Asia has already received irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer from Ban Leong's managing director Ronald Teng Woo Boon and his wife Teo Su Ching, who together hold 28.13 per cent of the company.
If Epicsoft Asia secures at least 90 per cent of Ban Leong's issued shares at the close of its offer, it can compulsorily buy the remaining shares at the same offer price from shareholders who have not accepted the offer.
Shares of Ban Leong jumped by more than 57 per cent to close the week at 59 cents, their highest level since the company listed in June 2005.
Valuation gap
The proposed acquisition of Ban Leong underscores the disconnect between public market valuations on SGX and the underlying strengths of many listed companies. Despite demonstrating strong performance and growth potential, firms like Ban Leong remain undervalued, largely due to low trading liquidity and limited market visibility.
This valuation gap is attracting buyers like GCL Global who are willing to pay a premium for quality assets that the market has overlooked. It also raises questions about how SGX can better support fairer valuations and stem the pace of delistings, which has been accelerating.
In 2025 so far, at least eight companies have announced potential delistings. They are: SLB Development, PEC, Econ Healthcare, Sinarmas Land, ICP, Amara Holdings, Procurri Corp, and Ban Leong.
Amara, which received an offer from its bosses and developers Wing Tai and Hwa Hong, has already secured irrevocable undertakings from chairman Albert Teo and his family, who collectively hold 90.58 per cent of Amara.
Meanwhile, shareholders of Japfa and Paragon Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) have since accepted offers to be taken private. The companies will be delisted from the SGX.
In contrast, just one company, automotive group Vin's Holdings, has listed on the SGX so far. A second company, candy maker YLF Group Marketing, called off its planned initial public offering in April.
The pace of potential delistings also appears to be accelerating, compared with the previous year. In 2024, a total of 20 companies delisted from the Singapore bourse, while four new companies went public.
CapitaLand Investment, iFast drop
Two companies saw their shares dive last week, one of which was CapitaLand Investment (CLI), a constituent of the Straits Times Index (STI).
Shares of the property fund manager dropped 8 per cent to $2.53 on May 2 after trading ex-dividend. This is the cut-off date when buying the stock no longer entitles investors to receive the next dividend payout.
CLI has declared a 2024 core dividend of 12 cents a share, unchanged from 2023's payout, on May 13. A special dividend-in-specie of 0.031 CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust's units per share valued at 6 cents will also be paid.
CLI on April 30 also announced poorer revenues for the first quarter of 2025 after excluding contributions from CapitaLand Ascott Trust (Clas) from its financial results.
Revenue amounted to $496 million for the quarter ended March 31, representing a 24 per cent year-on-year decline due to the deconsolidation of Clas. In December 2024, CLI sold a 4.9 per cent stake in Clas for $162 million to an unrelated party, resulting in Clas no longer qualifying as its subsidiary.
Shares of iFast dropped by more than 11 per cent during the week, closing on May 2 at $6.30 despite announcing that its global trust, a Singapore-incorporated entity within the group, had been granted a trust business licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
This will enable iFast to expand its wealth management capabilities by supporting clients across the entire wealth life cycle, from accumulation and growth to preservation and legacy planning, iFast said.
Still, the move failed to offset share price declines earlier in the week, when iFast on April 28 cut the 2025 profit before tax target for its Hong Kong operations to HK$380 million (S$63.7 million) from its previous guidance of HK$500 million.
Other market movers
Shares of Straco Corporation rallied almost 9 per cent, closing the week at 44 cents, after executive chairman Wu Hsioh Kwang acquired 16,545,000 shares at 40 cents each.
Bourse filings on April 28 showed that Mr Wu increased his direct stake in the company, which runs the Singapore Flyer and several tourist attractions in China, from 1.04 per cent to 2.97 per cent.
Including his 55.02 per cent deemed interest, his total interest in the company now stands at 57.99 per cent.
Hong Kong-listed graphics card maker PC Partner, which has a secondary listing in Singapore, rose by more than 8 per cent in the week, when chipmaker Nvidia told some of its biggest Chinese customers that it is tweaking the design of its AI chips so they can be sold to Chinese businesses without clashing with US export rules, the media reported.
PC Partner makes video graphics cards that use Nvidia and AMD graphic processing units (GPUs) for third-party customers globally.
It reported in February a 331 per cent year-on-year jump in 2024 net profit to HK$262.1 million, on the back of a 10 per cent jump in revenue to over HK$10 billion over the same period.
Samudera Shipping rose 4 per cent during the week to close at 87 cents. The shipping line on April 29 announced that it had moved a total of 490,000 20-foot containers in the first quarter of 2025, higher than the same period a year ago.
Higher charter rates also led to average revenue per container of $238, compared with $221 over the same period.
What to look out for this week
UOB, DBS Bank and OCBC Bank are scheduled to release their 2025 first-quarter business updates on May 7, May 8 and May 9, respectively.
The three banks, which experienced price declines averaging 8 per cent in April, now account for 51 per cent of the STI.
Institutional investors sold over $700 million worth of shares in the three banks in April, according to SGX data. In contrast, retail investors ploughed $1.58 billion into the three stocks during the month, the data showed.
Correction note: An earlier version of our report may have given the impression that CapitaLand Investment's share price declined due to its first-quarter results. In fact, the dip occurred as the stock traded ex-dividend, a point that was explained in the story. CapitaLand Investment also clarified that it paid a special dividend of 6 cents in relation to the distribution of CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust on top of its core dividend of 12 cents. Separately, we reported that Aoxin Q&M would be delisted or privatised. This is incorrect — Q&M Dental has stated its intention to keep Aoxin Q&M listed.
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