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| SUNPOWER: Artur sells but Asdew buys |
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Written by Sim Kih
Wednesday, 24 April 2013 07:00
 Sunpower’s stock price has been suffering an overhang ever since substantial shareholder Artur Jurczakowski started offloading his holdings via open market transactions. Stock price was about 40 cents when he started selling in February 2011. It has been battered down by some 50% to about 20 cents since then. Bloomberg dataSUNPOWER GROUP’S substantial shareholder Artur Jurczakowski has been regularly offloading his shares -- but a Singapore fund, Asdew Acquisitions, has upped its stake in the past year. Jurczakowski's latest announced disposals were in February 2013, when he sold 1.4 million shares at an average price of 20 cents on the 5th and 19th and his interest dipped below 5%. Asdew Acquisitions, on the other hand, upped its stake in Sunpower from 3.57% as at 9 March 2012 to 4.29% as at 8 March 2013. Just check out the annual reports. Asdew Acquisitions is a fund predominantly owned by former Kim Eng director Alan Wang. In February 2013, Asdew emerged as a cornerstone investor of Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, one of the largest ever REIT IPOs in Singapore. Last month, the high profile fund also took a placement of new shares issued by Sino Grandness Food Industry. The placement increased Asdew's interest in the manufacturer and distributor of bottled juices and canned fruit & vegetables by 8 million shares to 18.8 million, making it a substantial shareholder with a 6.4% stake.  Major shareholder Professor Guo Hongxin founded the company and now holds 23%. The key management collectively hold over 60% in the company. NextInsight file photo
Since then, investors chased Sino Grandness' stock price up by a whopping 39% to reach a historical high of S$1.26 on 19 April. Will Asdew's interest in Sunpower work similar magic? For the same magic to work with Sunpower, investors may have to wait out Jurczakowski's disposals. Jurczakowski held 10.85% when he started his open market sales on 28 February 2011. He was still its fourth largest shareholder with a 4.86% stake as at 19 February 2013. Sunpower's stock price was about 40 cents when Jurczakowski started selling back in February 2011. Each transaction was between 20,000 to 40,000 shares and took place about twice a month. These regular share disposals battered the stock down to about 20 cents. Last week, its stock price plunged to a 3-year low of 16 cents before recovering to 17.5 cents. At this price, dividend yield is 0.86% and price earnings is only 3.5 times for FY2013 (Bloomberg data). For FY2012, it is proposing a first and final dividend of 0.15-cent that goes ex on 2 May and is payable on 31 May. The top three shareholders in Sunpower are executive chairman Guo Hongxin (23.19%) and executive directors Li Lai Suo (21.0%) and Ma Ming (17.36%). In FY2012, its revenue decreased 6.1% to Rmb 1,173.3 million while net profit decreased 33.2% to Rmb 60.7 million. The good news is: Gross profit margin increased from 21.9% to 25.1% due to better selling margins of heat pipes and heat pipe exchangers. The company’s order book remains strong. It was Rmb 1.12 billion as at 26 February 2013. Being a member of both China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (“SINOPEC”) materials supply network and China National Petroleum Corporation first-tier network, the Group is pre-qualified to supply products to companies in the SINOPEC and CNPC groups. Last year, Sunpower secured substantial contracts from long-term customers in various sectors. These customers included Sinopec Hubei fertilizer, Xining Special Steel, Ningbo Haiyue and China Huanqiu.  It also penetrated the Mexican market in August 2012, providing key equipment for Braskem Idesa, a joint venture between Brazilian Braskem, the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the US and the eighth largest in the world, and Mexican Grupo Idesa. |