Directors' Trades

LEE KIM TAH DIRECTORS RAISE DEEMED STAKES

THE controlling shareholder of Lee Kim Tah Holdings, a firm linked to executive chairman Lee Soon Teck, has been buying shares in the construction firm on a daily basis since the start of the month.

Mr Lee has been buying company shares on and off through Lee Kim Tah Investments for the past two years.

This entity has boosted its stake in the company from 62.03 per cent towards the end of last month to 62.4 per cent on Tuesday, a check with shareinvestor.com showed.

The investment firm is linked to Mr Lee and executive director Edwin Lee Yong Chuan, whose deemed stakes in Lee Kim Tah have now risen.

Since last week, about 1.8 million shares have been bought at prices ranging from an estimated 50.5 cents to 53 cents.

The purchases would have cost the investment vehicle around $900,000.

Lee Kim Tah shares reached a high on Jan 8 of 62.5 cents. Since then it has declined.

But despite the market correction last week, the counter has remained steady. Yesterday, Lee Kim Tah shares ended unchanged at 52.5 cents.

This could be due to full-year profits which were announced on Feb 27 being positive, showing that the bottom line had more than doubled from $4.7 million to $9.9 million.

Lee Kim Tah also announced a first and final dividend of one cent less tax per share, and a special dividend of 2.13 cents less tax per share, to utilise the Section 44 tax credits which will expire on Dec 31.

LEE SU SHYAN