Newly listed Swift Haulage slides further despite stabilising efforts

Newly listed Swift Haulage slides further despite stabilising efforts

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): Newly listed Swift Haulage Bhd saw a second round of stabilising action on Thursday (Dec 23) as the stock continued to trade below its initial public offering (IPO) price.

The stabilising manager, AmInvestment Bank Bhd, purchased 4.48 million shares at an average price of 94.03 sen (between 92.5 sen and 95 sen), the integrated logistics service provider said in a bourse filing.

A stabilising action is the immediate purchase of shares in a newly listed company by its underwriters to stabilise or support the share price when it is unstable.

Swift Haulage shares ended their maiden day of trading on Tuesday at 96 sen, a discount of seven sen or 6.8% to the IPO price of RM1.03.

Since then, the share price has stayed below the offer price, falling to as low as 92.5 sen.

On Thursday, the counter closed 1.5 sen or 1.55% lower at 95 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM845.31 million.

Swift Haulage's trading volume has also been on the decline after recording 158.56 million shares on Tuesday, falling to 32.33 million shares on Wednesday and 16.19 million shares on Thursday.

The first round of stabilising action was taken on Tuesday when AmInvestment purchased 3.9 million shares at an average price of 97.72 sen.

The number of shares involved in the stabilising action volume accounted for 2.46% and 27.68% of Swift Haulage's trading volumes on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

AmInvestment has the option to purchase another 11.62 million shares out of the total 20 million or 6.37% of the total number of Swift Haulage IPO shares that may be subjected to stabilising action within 30 days from the first trading day.

Based on calculation done on the back of an envelope, the stabilising action has so far cost AmInvestment RM8.02 million.

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/newly-listed-swift-haulage-slides-further-despite-stabilising-efforts