In October, the STI gained 4%, bringing the STI’s total return for the first ten months of 2019 to 9%. The buyback consideration of primary-listed SGX stocks over the first 10 months of 2019 was just one-third of the consideration recorded over the same period in 2018.
For the month of October, 21 primary-listed SGX stocks repurchased more than 50 million shares with a total consideration of S$15 million. This was similar to the S$15 million in September and down from S$60 million in October 2018.
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October buyback consideration was led by Keppel REIT, Stamford Land Corporation, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Singapore Shipping Corporation and Global Investments. Four stocks commenced new mandates.
Total share buyback consideration for month of October 2019 totaled S$15.2 million, similar to the S$14.9 million consideration reported for September 2019. The month’s buyback was also down from S$59.9 million in October 2018. There were 21 SGX primary-listed stocks that reported buybacks of their SGX-listings over the month, buying back a total of 54.9 million shares. Note the tally does not include secondary-listed stocks such as Jardine Matheson Holdings.
For the first 10 months of 2019, the total buyback consideration of SGX primary-listed stocks amounted to approximately S$470 million, which was approximately one-third of the S$1.34 billion recorded for the first 10 months of 2018. The S$470 million in consideration for the last 10 months was more on-par with the S$344 million recorded for the first 10 months of 2017.
Last month, the Straits Times Index (“STI”) rebounded by 4%, moving from 3119.99 at the end of September to 3,229.88 at the end of October. This brought the STI’s total return for the ten months of 2019 to 9%. As discussed here, the STI was amongst Asia Pacific’s strongest benchmarks in October.
Four Stocks Commenced New Mandates Commenced in October 2019
The table below summarises the buyback considerations in October 2019. The table is sorted by the value of the total consideration amount for the month, which combines the amount of shares or units purchased and the purchasing price of the transactions.
Keppel REIT led the consideration tally, and as of October 31, Keppel REIT Management had bought back a total of 27,737,600 units of Keppel REIT representing 0.8148 per cent of its issued units as of the April 23 start date for the current mandate. The previous year’s mandate saw Keppel REIT Management buy back 1.004 per cent of the units of Keppel REIT.
The 4 stocks that commenced new mandates included Shopper360, Singapore Medical Group, Intraco and MDR.
| Stocks | Maximum Number of Shares/units Authorised for Purchase in Current Mandate |
Oct 2019 Total Number of Shares/units Purchased |
Oct 2019 Total Buyback Consideration (including stamp duties, clearing changes etc.) paid or payable for the shares |
Cumulative Number of Shares/units purchased in Mandate to date * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KEPPEL REIT MANAGEMENT | 170,210,715 | 4,350,000 | $5,456,915 | 27,737,600 |
| STAMFORD LAND CORPORATION | 81,973,408 | 4,844,000 | $2,413,723 | 24,617,600 |
| YANGZIJIANG SHIPBUILDING (HOLDINGS) | 394,576,520 | 2,000,000 | $1,887,320 | 27,000,000 |
| SINGAPORE SHIPPING CORPORATION | 42,417,689 | 5,363,500 | $1,585,563 | 12,728,300 |
| GLOBAL INVESTMENTS | 168,741,864 | 8,911,100 | $1,240,173 | 57,658,300 |
| GRP | 19,370,161 | 3,949,600 | $772,494 | 5,806,800 |
| DUTY FREE INTERNATIONAL | 120,550,039 | 3,959,200 | $634,882 | 7,301,300 |
| SHOPPER360 | 11,440,000 | 2,625,500 | $289,803 | 2,625,500 |
| CHEUNG WOH TECHNOLOGIES | 30,189,290 | 1,210,600 | $188,324 | 2,990,900 |
| CDW HOLDING | 22,724,200 | 614,400 | $117,133 | 3,996,900 |
| BREADTALK GROUP | 56,376,234 | 200,000 | $111,345 | 695,000 |
| FOOD EMPIRE HOLDINGS | 53,426,699 | 200,000 | $103,320 | 400,000 |
| HEALTHWAY MEDICAL CORPORATION | 226,439,605 | 3,499,100 | $89,989 | 17,565,800 |
| STARBURST HOLDINGS | 12,114,546 | 215,000 | $81,702 | 381,600 |
| EUROSPORTS GLOBAL | 26,220,160 | 379,000 | $73,926 | 609,000 |
| ANCHUN INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS | 5,008,260 | 222,000 | $51,941 | 224,700 |
| SINGAPORE MEDICAL GROUP | 48,072,163 | 139,000 | $42,004 | 139,000 |
| HRNETGROUP | 100,581,957 | 70,000 | $41,124 | 572,000 |
| STRACO CORPORATION | 86,411,428 | 20,500 | $15,397 | 121,300 |
| INTRACO | 10,372,588 | 52,200 | $12,326 | 52,200 |
| MDR | 6,496,063,939 | 12,029,300 | $12,047 | 12,029,300 |
| Total | 54,854,000 | $15,221,450 |
* Percentage of company’s issued shares excluding treasury shares as at the date of the share buyback resolutions.
Source: SGX My Gateway (Data as of 31 October 2019)
Share buyback transactions involve share issuers repurchasing some of their outstanding shares from shareholders through the open market. Once the shares are bought back, they will be converted into treasury shares, which means they are no longer categorised as shares outstanding. Motivations for share buybacks can include employee compensation plans (such as share option schemes or employee share purchase plans) or long term capital management.
The date of the relevant share buyback mandate is also provided in the table above, in addition to the amount of shares authorised to be bought back under the mandate. The total number of shares purchased under the mandate and the percentage of the companies that issued shares that have been repurchased under the mandate are also provided.
Share buyback information can be found on the company disclosure page on the SGX website, using the Announcement category and sub-category of Share Buy Back-On Market. As best practice, companies should refrain from buying back their shares during the two weeks immediately before its quarterly financial statements and one month immediately before the full-year financial statements.
