Businessman Oei Hong Leong has let go of his 21 per cent stake in Intraco just a month after acquiring it, but shares in the trading company continue to be hot property. Mr Oei told The Business Times yesterday that he had sold his entire Intraco stake to Tony Chew  - another well-known businessman in Singapore, who is executive chairman of Asia Resource Corporation and chairman of the Singapore Business Federation.

Mr Oei said his interest in Intraco began to fade after he realised that he could not acquire the controlling stake he wanted. The savvy investor had bought 20.8 million shares in Intraco on June 4. That translated into a 21.1 per cent stake then, making Mr Oei the second'largest shareholder after the family controlling crane giant Tat Hong Holdings  ' which had, just days before Mr Oei's purchase, inked an agreement to buy a 29.89 per cent controlling stake in Intraco.

The 29.89 per cent stake was what Mr Oei had been eyeing, he said. His statement con'rms earlier rumours that Mr Oei had been one of the bidders for that stake owned by Hanwell Holdings. The Tat Hong family, using their family investment vehicle, TH Investment, paid 62 cents a share ' more than double the last traded share price then ' or about $18.28 million for the entire stake.

But, never easily daunted, Mr Oei picked up a 21.1 per cent stake the week after, when he was believed to have paid between 45 cents and 58 cents a share. He told The Straits Times then: "There is good value in certain shares and many undervalued stocks." A June 5 announcement by Intraco said the 20.8 million shares Mr Oei bought comprised 6.8 million shares at 50.03 cents each from the open market and 14 million shares at 50 cents apiece from a married deal.

Mr Oei said one thing that attracted him was Intraco's healthy cashpile. Its latest annual report shows that its cash stands at about $42 million, close to its current market capitalisation of $57 million.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) Ltd said it will receive a compensation of 720mil yuan (S$145mil) from the municipal government of Jiangyin city. This arose from an agreement for the company to relocate the yard of its wholly' owned subsidiary Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.

Property fund management 'rm ARA Asset Management said that its two largest shareholders, CEO John Lim and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka'shing's Cheung Kong Holdings, have cut their stakes in the Singapore'listed 'rm to 32.37% and 13.87% respectively.

ARA, which manages $20.8bil in property assets as at end'March, said that the sale of shares by its two shareholders was "to enhance the trading liquidity of ARA shares and to meet investors' strong demand for ARA shares". Source: The Business Times 

Source: AmFraser