High share concentration in Kingston: HK regulator

Jan 30, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

---

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has issued a warning to investors about the “high concentration of shareholding” in Hong Kong-listed Kingston Financial Group Ltd.

“In view of the high concentration of shareholding in a small number of shareholders, shareholders and prospective investors should be aware that the price of the shares of the company could fluctuate substantially even with a small number of shares traded, and should exercise extreme caution when dealing in the shares,” the regulator said in a Monday announcement.

As at January 8, Pollyanna Chu Yuet Wah, chief executive of Kingston Financial, was the firm’s main shareholder, with a stake of 74.6 percent. Additionally, a group of 19 shareholders held an aggregate stake of 17.1 percent, according to data from the Securities and Futures Commission included in Monday’s release. The remaining 8.3 percent shares were held by “other shareholders”.

Kingston Financial stressed in a follow-up filing that – despite its current shareholding structure – it was “able to comply with the public float requirement” under the rules governing the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The exchange requires listed companies to have a minimum public float of 25 percent of their total issued shares.

Kingston Financial controls two casino hotels in Macau – Casa Real on Macau peninsula and Grandview (pictured) on Taipa. They offer gaming under the casino licence of SJM Holdings Ltd via a so-called service agreement.

The Securities and Futures Commission’s release added that the firm’s stock price had increased by 211.3 percent from August 11, 2017 to January 26, 2018.

Kingston Financial reported in November last year that gaming revenue from its two Macau casinos had fell by 2.6 percent year-on-year in the six months to September 30.

---

---