See Hup ... Mar 09

Saudi national Shaik Khalid H A Zainy Motwakil has ceased to be a substantial shareholder in transportation and logistics services provider See Hup Consolidated Bhd after disposing of 200,000 shares on March 13 2009. Shaik Khalid was left with 1.86 million See Hup shares or a 4.63% stake in the company.

Shaik Khalid first emerged as a substantial shareholder in See Hup on Nov 20, 2007. He acquired a 5% direct stake comprising two million shares in the Penang-based company on Nov 7 2007. Since then, he had raised his stake in the firm to 5.17% before the disposal on March 13 2009.

Among See Hup's major substantial shareholders, Hean Brothers Holdings Sdn Bhd stood as the largest with a 20.45% stake while other substantial shareholders included Lee Hean Guan with 11.32% and LHG Holdings Sdn Bhd with 7.56%. See Hup closed untraded at 95 sen yesterday.

Moving forward, it expects its fourth quarter to be less favourable on a longer downtime arising from festive holidays and prolonged shutdown in certain manufacturing industries in the wake of anticipated challenging economic conditions.

Financial Results …

See Hup's net profit fell to RM574,000 for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2008 (3Q08), from RM878,000 previously while revenue declined to RM27.3 million from RM28 million.

The company attributed the dip in revenue to lower contribution from the transportation and logistics sector, which declined by RM6.4 million. Due to that, operating profit was lower at RM1.1 million against RM2.4 million in the preceding quarter.

For the nine months to Dec 31, 2008, basic earnings per share fell to 6.69 sen from 7.7 sen.