Recent sharp gain in Olam shares fuels concerns over possible insider trading

Recent sharp gain in Olam shares fuels concerns over possible insider trading

Temasek Holdings’ buyout offer yesterday came after Olam’s share price had accelerated dramatically in recent weeks against the backdrop of a flat market, leading some investors to cry foul and call on regulators to investigate possible insider trading in violation of securities laws.

MARCH 15

Temasek Holdings’ buyout offer yesterday came after Olam’s share price had accelerated dramatically in recent weeks against the backdrop of a flat market, leading some investors to cry foul and call on regulators to investigate possible insider trading in violation of securities laws.

Shareholder activist Mano Sabnani said in his Facebook posting: “What is upsetting is that there seems to have been a big leak of information on this takeover bid.

“The stock has been steadily rising on increasing trading volume in the past three to four weeks.”

Over the last four weeks, Olam shares have risen 41.1 per cent, compared with the 1.1 per cent gain in the benchmark Straits Times Index during the same period.

“In such a takeover, there will be many people involved in planning it and the chances of a leak are great. An early suspension in trading of the stock would have helped to achieve a level playing field,” said Mr Sabnani.

 

About bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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