KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Plywood, veneer and laminated veneer lumber manufacturer Focus Lumber Bhd has seen its Taiwanese major shareholder Lu Wei Hsu disposing a 3.44% stake or 3.56 million shares since mid-October.
According to the group's filings to Bursa Malaysia, Lu, who is son of another major shareholder Lu Chin Ting (7.34% direct stake), was initially holding a 4.28% (4.42 million shares) direct stake in Focus Lumber, before he reduced it to 0.84% (863,684 shares).
Chin Ting, who is also the uncle of the group's executive director Lin Lieh Ming, did not dispose any of his stake.
On the other hand, Chen Chun Hsiung, a former executive director of Focus Lumber who resigned for health reasons on Sept 24, 2012, has also pared down his stake by 0.39% since beginning of the year to 8.58% (8.86 million shares) from 8.97% (9.25 million shares).
Focus Lumber is currently helmed by Lin Hao Wen (with a 6.12% direct stake), son of founder Lin Fong Meng (also with a 6.12% direct stake), as managing director. Besides that, Lin's brother Lin Hao Yu also holds another 6.12% direct stake in the group.
Focus Lumber was picked by Insider Asia as one of its Stocks with Likelihood of Corporate Exercise on Nov 13, saying that it has net cash of RM60.7 million as at June 30, 2014, which translates to a significant 58.8 sen per share.
On top of that, Insider Asia had noted that Focus Lumber managed to stay profitable and consistently paid dividends despite less than favourable market conditions for wood players in the past few years due to the sluggish housing markets in the US and Europe.
Turnover for the group was stable between RM120 million to RM148 million from 2010 to 2013, resulting in net profit of between RM10 million to RM16 million over the same period.
For the first half of 2014, revenue increased 6.4% to RM 75.1 million while net profit rose 35.2% to RM7.6 million.
Focus Lumber's share price has been on a downward trend after it reached RM1.48 on Aug 13. It closed unchanged at RM1.14 today, valuing the group at RM117.65 million.