The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Cosco

Directors' trades: Cosco insiders sell shares as price rises

THE sharp spike in Cosco Corp's stock price has been accompanied by a spate of share sales by insiders.

Shareinvestor.com records show that at least four key executives have unloaded Cosco shares since Monday.

These include vice-chairman and president Ji Hai Sheng, who sold 600,000 shares at $3.43 apiece on Tuesday, cutting his interests to 1.5 million shares.

On the same day, two alternate directors also sold shares - Mr Liu De Tian offloaded 107,000 at an average price of $3.4052 apiece, while Mr Ye Bin Lin disposed of 300,000 units at $3.44 each.

On Monday, two directors of units belonging to Cosco also trimmed their stakes. Mr Lee Fook Choy sold 2.7 million shares at $3.38 apiece and Mr Xu Hui Xing unloaded 200,000 at $3.38 each.

Their sales had followed a sharp run-up in the company's share price.

On Monday, Cosco rose by 13.4 per cent to $3.38, as investors reacted positively to news that it had secured US$1.19 billion (S$1.83 billion) worth of contracts to build bulk carriers, as well as car and truck carriers.

Kim Eng Research, which raised its target price on Cosco from $3.21 to $4.05 yesterday, said the firm's shipyard unit had boosted its order book by 67 per cent 'in one fell swoop' to US$3 billion recently.

'Specifically, US$669 million of these orders will be derived from contracts from related parties within the parent group of companies,' it said.

Cosco ended two cents down at $3.42 on a volume of 6.25 million shares yesterday.