OREANDA-NEWS. Over the last six months, there were a total of 805,501,136 shares repurchased by 65 stocks with a total consideration of S\$706.3 million. The five stocks with the largest consideration amount in buybacks during the period were Genting Singapore PLC, OCBC, Pacific Century Regional Developments, Keppel Corporation and Singapore Airlines. These five stocks make up more than half of the total consideration in share buybacks during the last six months.

The total consideration was S\$97.2 million in January (click here to view more). Last month, there were a total of 41,104,610 shares repurchased by 18 stocks with a total consideration of S\$41.9 million. The five stocks with the largest consideration amount in February in buybacks were OCBC, Sembcorp Marine, SPH, Singapore Technologies Engineering & Singtel.

For the first week of the month from 2 to 6 March, there were a total of 16,621,900 shares repurchased by 18 stocks with a total consideration of S\$25.1 million. This is an increase from the first week of March last year, which saw a total of 4,375,000 shares purchased by 12 stocks with a total consideration of S\$6.6 million.

The table below details the specifics of the buybacks of the largest consideration stocks with consideration of more than S\$1 million over the last six months. The table is sorted by the total consideration amount from September 2014 to February 2015, which collates the amount of shares purchased and the purchasing price of the shares. The date of the relevant share buyback mandate is also provided in addition to the amount of shares authorized to be bought back under the mandate. The total number of shares purchased under the mandate and the percentage of the companies issued shares that have been repurchased under the mandate are also provided.

Name Start Date Mandate Total no of shares purchased: Sep14-Feb15 Total Consideration: Sep14-Feb15 S\$ Cum no of shares purchased to date Percent*
GENTING SINGAPORE PLC 22/04/2014 1,223,813,684 171,006,600 187,279,857.61 171,006,600 1.40
OVERSEA-CHINESE BANKING CORPORATION 24/04/2014 171,866,257 8,111,500 82,293,685.10 15,836,500 0.46
PACIFIC CENTURY REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 28/04/2014 304,319,210 294,351,200 76,928,867.62 297,062,200 9.76
KEPPEL CORPORATION 12/10/2014 90,775,318 5,932,000 48,665,493.47 5,932,000 0.33
SINGAPORE AIRLINES 30/07/2014 58,735,366 4,699,000 46,355,307.56 6,980,000 0.59
SINGAPORE TECHNOLOGIES ENGINEERING 24/04/2014 62,340,211 13,480,300 45,220,477.43 13,480,300 0.43
SATS 23/07/2014 22,448,073 13,743,000 40,586,830.63 15,333,000 1.37
HYFLUX 24/04/2014 82,715,198 20,508,300 19,749,336.84 57,654,300 6.97
BIOSENSORS INTERNATIONAL GROUP 24/07/2014 169,849,298 27,421,400 15,912,218.03 60,741,000 1.61
SEMBCORP INDUSTRIES 24/04/2014 35,738,098 3,000,000 13,233,819.87 3,000,000 0.17
LIAN BENG GROUP 26/09/2014 52,976,000 19,635,000 12,665,946.09 19,635,000 3.71
OSIM INTERNATIONAL 28/03/2014 75,326,374 6,443,000 12,379,652.22 6,443,000 0.99
SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS 02/12/2014 159,988,429 2,750,000 11,407,507.86 2,750,000 0.17
WILMAR INTERNATIONAL 25/04/2014 639,907,760 3,779,000 11,343,617.32 3,779,000 0.06
SEMBCORP MARINE 18/02/2015 208,932,201 3,000,000 9,042,116.12 3,400,000 0.16
GLOBAL INVACOM GROUP 30/04/2014 23,180,230 18,983,000 7,684,571.87 18,983,000 8.18
COURTS ASIA 30/07/2014 55,573,910 15,313,200 6,959,884.66 15,763,200 2.84
MEWAH INTERNATIONAL INC. 28/04/2014 45,211,000 12,288,000 4,661,668.45 6,394,000 0.42
CHIP ENG SENG CORPORATION 25/04/2014 64,203,416 4,925,000 4,381,290.83 14,165,000 2.21
GP INDUSTRIES 30/07/2014 49,629,448 7,566,800 4,367,297.26 7,566,800 1.52
SINGAPORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS 16/02/2015 797,178,847 929,710 3,879,794.48 929,710 0.01
KOH BROTHERS GROUP 30/04/2014 44,143,040 11,678,900 3,659,027.75 19,127,900 4.33
RAFFLES EDUCATION CORPORATION 27/10/2014 101,620,523 10,298,000 3,605,760.13 10,298,000 1.01
WING TAI HOLDINGS 28/10/2014 78,775,586 2,164,000 3,541,039.47 2,164,000 0.28
FALCON ENERGY GROUP 25/07/2014 81,759,550 8,125,600 2,604,630.75 13,945,600 1.71
NAM CHEONG 28/04/2014 210,314,448 6,400,000 2,567,146.40 11,900,000 0.56
PAN-UNITED CORPORATION 21/04/2014 56,181,866 2,840,000 2,447,365.39 2,840,000 0.51
ASPIAL CORPORATION 24/04/2014 167,964,536 5,044,000 2,122,106.84 5,044,000 0.28
KEPPEL LAND 17/04/2014 154,581,266 650,000 2,119,874.72 650,000 0.04
GOODLAND GROUP 29/01/2015 33,645,984 7,151,000 1,998,907.17 4,413,000 1.41
DBS GROUP HOLDINGS 28/04/2014 24,455,964 100,000 1,927,209.92 100,000 0.00
GLOBAL TESTING CORPORATION 28/04/2015 75,741,100 21,115,000 1,859,626.07 38,584,000 5.09
ISDN HOLDINGS 08/10/2014 35,994,495 5,560,000 1,429,879.00 5,260,000 1.46
SARINE TECHNOLOGIES 29/04/2014 34,814,730 590,000 1,364,252.00 590,000 0.17
TECHNICS OIL & GAS 30/01/2015 23,493,297 1,600,000 1,127,754.69 1,657,000 0.71
MARCO POLO MARINE 27/01/2014 34,075,000 3,371,000 1,006,463.00 3,371,000 0.99

Source: SGX *percentage of company’s issued shares excluding treasury shares as at the date of the share buy-back resolution

Share Buybacks

Share buybacks are a simple strategy that sees a share issuer repurchases some of its outstanding shares from shareholders through open market transactions. Once shares are bought back they will be converted into treasury shares which means that are no longer categorised as shares outstanding. Motivations for share buy-backs include companies seeing stock valuations aligned with balance sheet objectives or employee compensation changes.