The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Cosco

Director sells Cosco stock as price soars

A DIRECTOR of a Cosco Corp (Singapore) subsidiary, Cosco Shipyard Group, Mr Feng Jin Hua, sold 400,000 Cosco shares at $2.95 apiece yesterday.

His sale came on a day when the shares of the mainboard-listed shipyard and bulk carrier company hit yet another all- time high of $2.96.

The transaction would have brought in about $1.18 million.

At the end of last month, Cosco - which has expanded into oil rig building - announced it had won its second offshore rig building contract.

Cosco Zhoushan Shipyard, a unit of Cosco's 51 per cent-owned shipyard group, secured a US$202 million (S$309 million) contract with Norwegian company Red Flag to build a semi-submersible rig hull.

However, the first quarter earned mixed reviews for Cosco - with revenues going up only 33 per cent to $355.8 million and net income up only 12 per cent to $42 million.

Nevertheless, directors at various Cosco units have demonstrated their confidence in the company.

Some recent transactions include the purchase of 18,000 Cosco shares by Ms Li Mei, a director of a subsidiary. She bought them at $2.64 each at the end of last month.

The wife of Cosco director Wang Kai Yuen also picked up shares last month: 300,000 at $2.593 apiece.

Earlier in the month, various directors of Cosco Shipyard also exercised their stock options, at 80.7 cents and $1.23 apiece.

At yesterday's prices, they could easily have reaped an average paper profit of close to $2 per share.