The chief executive of the only bulker owner listed in Singapore has shown his confidence in the company following a sell-off in its shares.
Uni-Asia Group’s Kenji Fukuyado acquired 70,000 shares worth SGD 74,679 ($54,323) on 1 June 2022, according to a regulatory filing on the Singapore Exchange.
Fukuyado, who has been chief executive for just over two years, now holds 1.47m shares of Uni-Asia Group, or a stake of around 1.87%.
His previous acquisition of shares was on 16 March 2022 when he acquired 50,000 shares at SGD 1.12 per share, and prior to that he acquired another 50,000 shares at SGD 0.633 per share in December 2020.
Fukuyado’s latest acquisition comes just days after a major shareholder offloaded almost 2m shares in the company in late May 2022.
Ham Yong Kwan sold 1.9m Uni-Asia Group shares worth just over SGD 2m on 26 May 2022, according to a regulatory filing.
The sale represented a 26% reduction of his stake in the company which prior to the disposal stood at 7.35m shares or 9.36% in the company. In March, Ham sold 514,100 shares worth SGD 579,663.
Uni-Asia Group shares closed at SGD 1.09 on Monday evening down over 14% in less than a month, but up from a low of SGD 1.01 on 26 May 2022.
In March 2022, Uni-Asia Group announced it was paying out its highest dividend in a decade following record freight rates in 2021.
The Singapore-listed company achieved a full-year net profit of $18m — its highest net profit since going public in 2007 — reversing a loss of $7.5m seen in 2020.
The group’s fleet comprises 10 wholly owned Japanese-built handysize bulkers built between 2007 and 2016 and seven ships in which it has stakes of 18% and an eighth ship in which has a 49% stake.
Notably, four of the 10 wholly owned bulkers were due for renewal in the first quarter of 2022, according to analysts that follow the company.
Current handysize freight rates were close to $30,000 per day on 1 June 2022, the latest available data from The Baltic Exchange due to the UK bank holiday weekend.
Uni-Asia Group became the only bulker owner listed on the SGX after South Korean shipowner Pan Ocean delisted its shares in June 2021.
It pulled its dual listing in the city state due to what it described as various “compliance and associated costs” and that these resources could be better spent on business operations.
