iFAST Corporation

 

On Jan 11, iFAST Corporation IFAST: AIY -0.52% (iFAST Corp) chairman and CEO Lim Chung Chun acquired 100,400 shares of the company for a consideration of S$758,792.

 

At an average price of S$7.56 per share, the acquisition took his total interest in iFAST Corp from 22.07 per cent to 22.10 per cent.

 

His preceding acquisition of shares, via market transactions, were in early 2021, with 50,000 shares acquired at S$5.63 per share on Mar 11, and 40,500 shares at S$5.64 a share on Feb 24.

 

While the S$7.56 price per share was more than 30 per cent higher than the prices paid for Lim' s preceding acquisitions in February to March last year, the price-earnings ratio of iFAST Corp, was comparable at 70x.

 

This was on the back of iFAST Corp reporting a 63.6 per cent year-on-year increase in its net profit for its 9MFY21 (ended Sep 30).

 

Lim noted last year that the recent trend of greater digitalisation had benefited iFAST Corp, as the company had always sought to position itself for the wealth management industry of the future, which it believed would be highly digitalised.

 

Lim co-founded the company with the launch of its B2C division Fundsupermart.com in Singapore in 2000, following which the B2B division iFAST Financial was launched in 2001.

 

Today, iFAST Corp is a wealth management Fintech platform that combines Fintech solutions with the capabilities of a licensed financial institution to provide multi-product offerings.

 

Lim has also led the company' s regional expansion efforts, extending iFAST Corp' s presence beyond Singapore to Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and India.

 

Last week, iFAST Corp also announced that it had raised a total of S$105 million via a placement of 14 million shares to institutional and accredited investors for the purpose of funding the group' s proposed acquisition of a UK bank that was announced on Jan 7.

 

The placement was over-subscribed with more than S$150 million in total subscription, which was more than double the initial base deal size of S$75 million, with the issue price of S$7.50 also at the top end of the placement' s price range of S$7.30 to S$7.50.

 

As of Sep 30, the wealth management fintech platform, maintained S$18.38 billion in assets under administration.

FOR the 5 trading sessions that spanned Jan 7 to 13, the Straits Times Index (STI) gained 2.3 per cent, with the FTSE China A50 Index declining 1.4 per cent, the Hang Seng Index gaining 4.9 per cent and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gaining 2.1 per cent.

 

Within the STI, DBS Group Holdings DBS: D05 +1.07% , OCBC OCBC Bank: O39 +0.74% , UOB UOB: U11 +2.57% , Singapore Telecommunications Singtel: Z74 +1.66% and Singapore Exchange SGX: S68 +0.41% received the highest net institutional inflows for the 5 sessions.

 

Outside the STI, Singapore Press Holdings SPH: T39 0% , Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust Mapletree NAC Tr: RW0U -1.82% , Keppel Reit Keppel Reit: K71U 0% , Ascott Residence Trust Ascott Trust: HMN +1.92% and Riverstone Holdings Riverstone: AP4 -2.04% received the highest net institutional inflows for the 5 sessions.

 

Overall, institutions were net buyers over the period, with S$405 million of net inflow, with ComfortDelGro Corporation ComfortDelGro: C52 -0.73% , Mapletree Logistics Trust Mapletree Log Tr: M44U -0.56% , and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust CapLand IntCom T: C38U -0.99% reporting the highest net institutional outflows.

 

Share buybacks

 

There were 18 primary-listed stocks conducting share buybacks over the 5 sessions with a total consideration of S$12.0 million.

 

Nanofilm Technologies International Nanofilm: MZH +1.16% led the consideration tally, paying an average price of S$3.45 per share.

 

Secondary-listings Hongkong Land HongkongLand USD: H78 -0.18% and Jardine Matheson Holdings JMH USD: J36 +0.46% also bought back shares during the period.

 

Director and substantial shareholder transactions

 

The 5 trading sessions saw close to 60 changes in director interests and substantial shareholdings filed for 27 primary-listed stocks.

 

This included 16 company director acquisitions with 2 disposals filed, while substantial shareholders filed 8 acquisitions and 2 disposals.