The board of directors of UMS Holdings 558 0.84% intends to seek a secondary listing on the main market of Malaysia&rsquo s stock exchange Bursa Malaysia, according to a release filed on July 17. 

 

This secondary listing will broaden the company&rsquo s investor reach and widen its investor base, and potentially increase the liquidity of the company&rsquo s shares through separate trading platforms, notes the release. 

 

It will also enable UMS Holdings to tap into additional platforms for future fundraising and provide it with the flexibility to access different equity markets to raise funds after taking into consideration investors&rsquo demand as well as the cost of raising equity funding on the respective stock exchange.

 

Currently, no application has been made to the Securities Commission Malaysia in relation to the secondary listing. 

 

On July 1, UMS' s wholly-owned subsidiary, Ultimate Manufacturing Solutions, announced that it has invested RM15.23 million ($4.5 million) to acquire a new 5.38 acres, or approximately 235,000 sq ft, of a 60-year leasehold industrial land site in Penang Science Park North, Malaysia. 

 

This news comes amid Malaysia&rsquo s ambition to become a semiconductor hub in Southeast Asia with ongoing geopolitical tensions between US and China forcing global supply chains to diversify. 

In late May, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pitched the nation as a &ldquo neutral and non-aligned location for semiconductor production&rdquo , and targeted 500 billion ringgit in investment for its semiconductor industry. 

 

UMS Holdings held its IPO on the Singapore Exchange S68 0.00% back in 2001, where it raised $51.6 million via a placement of 40 million new shares at $1.29 each. About a decade later, it attempted a dual listing in Korea to tap the semiconductor ecosystem there. But a non-Korean company ahead of UMS in the application was caught for fraud, and the dual listing eventually did not go through. 

Semiconductor-testing solutions provider AEM has been topping Singapore&rsquo s short interest chart for months, with 7.02% of its outstanding shares having been borrowed

 

THE short interest levels of UMS Holdings and Keppel DC Reit have been rising, and have sent both these counters into the list of the five most shorted counters in Singapore.

 

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer UMS had the fourth-highest short interest &ndash defined as the percentage of outstanding shares on loan &ndash at 2.88 per cent as at Jun 28, S& P Global Market Intelligence data showed.

 

Keppel DC Reit, a Reit focused on data centres, had the fifth-highest level, at 2.37 per cent.

 

Semiconductor-testing solutions provider AEM has been topping Singapore&rsquo s short interest chart for months, with 7.02 per cent of its outstanding shares being borrowed.

 

Flag carrier Singapore Airlines and provider of engineering solutions to the offshore, marine and energy industries, Seatrium, were behind as the second- and third-most shorted stocks in Singapore respectively.

 

The short interest across the Straits Times Index was 0.56 per cent.

 

UMS has been on the top five list before: the last time its short interest levels peaked, at 3.1 per cent, was on May 24, 2023.

 

The counter&rsquo s short interest spiked to 1.55 per cent on May 15, 2024, from 0.62 per cent the day before. Its short interest levels have stayed elevated since, keeping the counter in the top five shorted stocks list since the week to Jun 7.

 

Matt Chessum, director of securities finance at S& P Global Market Intelligence, said of UMS: &ldquo Short interest has increased&hellip following a recent decline in Q1 revenue and a weaker-than-expected Q2 outlook.

 

&ldquo As the artificial intelligence (AI) frenzy continues, the semiconductor sector is becoming increasingly competitive, as investors continue to scrutinise semiconductor companies to find those that will benefit the most from increased AI-linked demand.&rdquo

 

The counter endured a sell-down of 15.9 per cent on May 13, after having reported a 44 per cent plunge in its net profit for the first quarter.

 

DBS Group Research downgraded the stock to &ldquo hold&rdquo and slashed its target price to S$1 from S$1.84 in a report released shortly after.

 

Its analysts said that sluggish demand from UMS&rsquo key customer was expected to continue to affect the group in the short term.

 

The counter was 0.9 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$1.19 on Wednesday, but down 10.5 per cent in the year to date.

 

Meanwhile, Keppel DC Reit&rsquo s short interest has been going up since late November the counter joined the list of Singapore&rsquo s top five shorted counters two weeks ago.

 

Gabriel Yap, a veteran investor in Reits, described the rising short interest in Keppel DC Reit as &ldquo not surprising&rdquo , given the turn of events since April.

 

The manager of the Reit had announced that month that the Reit was divesting its freehold 100-per-cent interest in its Sydney data centre, Intellicentre Campus, at A$174 million (S$152.1 million).

 

About A$90 million of the proceeds from that divestment were then reinvested into an Australian data centre note issued by Macquarie Data Centres Group. That was to enable the Reit to retain its exposure to the Australia data centre market, the Reit manager had then said.

 

The deals were completed a week ago.

 

Saying that the Reit&rsquo s investment in the Macquarie note &ldquo does not make sense&rdquo , Yap added: &ldquo You sell the Intellicentre to raise liquidity, then lock yourself up for a longer, illiquid 8.5 years&rsquo structured note, while earning only a meagre higher yield offset.&rdquo

This brings the group&rsquo s combined space in Singapore and Malaysia to over 1.2 million sq ft

 

SEMICONDUCTOR company UMS Holdings : 558 -0.85%&rsquo wholly owned subsidiary has acquired 5.4 acres or approximately 235,000 square feet (sq ft) of leasehold industrial land in Penang, Malaysia, for RM15.2 million (S$4.5 million). 

 

The 60-year leasehold land is &ldquo strategically located&rdquo between Perai Industrial Area and Batu Kawan Industrial in Penang Science Park North, UMS said in a bourse filing on Monday (Jul 1). It is also situated next to UMS&rsquo new factory in Penang. 

 

The acquisition will be funded internally from the group&rsquo s placement proceeds, which were raised in January, and is not expected to have any material impact on the company in the current financial year, added UMS. 

 

With this acquisition, the group will have over 1.2 million sq ft of combined space in Singapore and Malaysia to &ldquo meet new demands of key customers&rdquo . 

 

UMS chairman and chief executive Andy Luong highlighted that the group&rsquo s latest investment underscores its commitment in expanding its operations and providing &ldquo best-in-class facilities&rdquo for clients and potential clients. 

 

&ldquo Going forward, we believe that our investments in Penang will enable the group to strengthen its operational efficiency and sharpen its competitive edge in the market in order to grow the business and drive long-term value for our shareholders,&rdquo said Luong.