TWO former senior employees of UOB Kay Hian Private Limited (UOBKH) were charged on Wednesday for allegedly lying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in relation to reports on a then Catalist aspirant. Lan Kang Ming, 38, and Wee Toon Lee, 34, each face three charges of providing MAS with false information in October 2018 in relation to due diligence reports on an unidentified company applying to list on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. MAS said in a media statement on Wednesday that it was performing an onsite inspection of UOBKH between June and August 2018, to assess the latter's controls, policies and procedures in relation to its role as an issue manager for Initial Public Offering (IPOs). During the examination, Lan and Wee were said to have provided different versions of a due diligence report relating to background checks on a company applying to be listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. UOBKH had acted as the issue manager
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R Sivanithysivan
15 October 2014
The stock of electronics company Valuetronics Holdings on Tuesday collapsed six cents, or 15.8 per cent, to 32 Singapore cents on heavy volume of 26.3 million shares, an apparent casualty of concerns over its future earnings.
Some observers attributed the selling to a “sell” report issued on Monday by Maybank Kim Eng (MKE) that set a 25-cent target price (TP). However, others questioned why one “sell” report could have that much influence when there are other, current “buy” recommendations in circulation.
“It wasn’t that long ago that analysts set target prices of over 60 cents,” said one reader in an e-mail to The Business Times. “Why should one report exert such a powerful impact?”
MKE said in its “sell” report that Valuetronics faced an uncertain future as its largest customer - a Dutch lighting, consumer electronics and healthcare conglomerate - had decided to split its lighting business from the rest of its businesses, to focus on higher-margin, less-challenging segments.
“Lighting, in particular LED lighting, accounts for 40 per cent of Valuetronics’ revenue and 30 per cent of its gross profit,” said MKE.
It also said that premium LED lighting brands were being undercut by cheaper Chinese products and that Valuetronics’ customer had to cut its prices as it repositioned its brand in the consumer mass market.
“Valuetronics trades at 7.0x FY16E P/E vs a sector average of 9.9x. However, with major uncertainties ahead, we believe it is likely to underperform. Our TP assigns zero value to its lighting business and 6-4x P/E to its industrial and non-lighting businesses, or 60-40 per cent of its peer averages. Overall, we value the group at 4.4x P/E,” said MKE.
According to Bloomberg’s financial service, Valuetronics is covered by three other houses, all of which have current positive reports in issue - Phillip Securities with a Sept 9 “accumulate” and 59-cent target, DBS Vickers with a Sept 2 “buy” and 65-cent target, and AM Fraser with an Aug 13 “buy” that set a 69-cent target.
Valuetronics hit a 52-week high of 58 Singapore cents on July 24 and has lost 26 cents or 45 per cent in about 11 weeks.