Robert Halili

The Insider | Bank of East Asia’s deputy CEO pares stake while Kingmaker’s executives amass shares

Name: SCMP
Telephone: +852-2680-8888

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Robert Halili

Published: 2:45pm, 4 Mar 2018Updated: 12:51pm, 7 Mar 2018

A 29 per cent increase in the share price of Bank of East Asia in the past two years prompted the lender’s deputy chief executive to sell some of his stock, his first on-market disposal since his August 2014 appointment as director.

Deputy CEO Adrian David Li Man Kiu sold 216,000 Bank of East Asia shares on February 27 at HK$34.05 each, paring his holdings to 7.003 million shares, or 0.25 of the issued capital. The stock dipped 1.7 per cent to HK$34.35 on Friday.

Li’s transaction was among the 15 disposals valued at HK$28 million disclosed last week by Hong Kong’s corporate insiders in five companies, a sharp increase from the HK$7 million reported a week earlier.

On the buying side, directors’ purchases fell for the second week, with 12 companies reporting 49 deals worth HK$122 million, based on filings to the stock exchange from February 28 to March 2.

Aside from directors, the buy-back activity fell for the second week with eight companies that posted 24 trades worth HK$65 million. The figures were not far off from the previous 3-day totals of 8 firms, 25 trades and HK$61 million.

Investors should watch out for Kingmaker Footwear Holdings, as the footwear manufacturer has been quietly buying back at progressively higher prices in the past five weeks. Kingmaker repurchased 4.32 million shares from January 25 to February 28 at an average of HK$2.15 each.