• In Jan 2022, 26 primary-listed stocks bought back their shares for a total consideration of S$52.9 million, down from the S$216.4 million in consideration filed for Dec 2021, while seasonally up from the S$12.4 million filed in Jan 2021 and the S$30 million filed for Jan 2020.
   
• The Jan 2022 buyback consideration tally was led by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, OCBC, Nanofilm Tech, SHS Holdings and ST Engineering. As of 31 Jan, SHS Holdings has bought back 5.9%, and Nanofilm Tech has bought back 1.1%, of their respective issued shares (excl. treasury shares) on the current buyback mandates.
   
• Yangzijiang Shipbuilding bought back 10 million shares at an average price of S$1.28 per share over two sessions in Jan 2022. With the preceding nine buybacks conducted between 5 Nov and 21 Dec, Yangzijiang has bought back 0.9% of its issued shares (excl. treasury shares) over the past three months.

In January 2022, 26 primary-listed stocks on SGX bought back their shares that totaled S$52.9 million in consideration, down from the S$216.4 million consideration in December 2021 (click here for more). On a seasonal basis, the consideration was higher than the S$12.45 million in consideration filed for January 2021 (click here for more), and the S$29.9 million filed for January 2020.

The S$52.9 million in buyback consideration represented 0.008% of the total market value of all primary-listed stocks listed on SGX as of the end of the end of January. Of the S$896.1 billion in total market capitalisation for all stocks listed on SGX at the end of January, S$659.9 billion was represented by primary-listed stocks. Secondary-listings Jardine Matheson Holdings and Hongkong Land also continued to conduct share buybacks in January.

During the month of January, the Straits Times Index (“STI”) gained 4.0% to 3,249.59 and ranked as Asia Pacific’s most defensive stock benchmark for the month, as the FTSE Asia Pacific Index declined 3.9% in SGD terms. Singapore stocks were recipient to S$803 million of net institutional inflow in January, following on from more than S$200 million in net institutional outflows in December 2021. Meanwhile, the combined AUM of the SPDR® Straits Times Index ETF and the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF ended January 2022 at S$2.28 billion, compared to S$2.23 billion at the end of December 2021, with the unit creations and redemptions generating S$31 million of net outflows from the two ETFs over the month. This compared to S$60 million of full year net outflows in 2021.

The January 2022 buyback consideration tally was led by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Nanofilm Technologies International, SHS Holdings and Singapore Technologies Engineering.  As of 31 Jan, SHS Holdings had bought back 5.9% of its respective issued shares (excl. treasury shares) on the current buyback mandates.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings), which also led the buyback consideration tally in January 2021, bought back 10 million shares at an average price of S$1.28 per share over two sessions in January 2022. With the preceding nine buybacks conducted between 5 November and 21 December, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) has bought back 0.9% of its issued shares (excl. treasury shares) over the past three months.

On 27 January, Keppel Corporation announced it had established a S$500 million Share Buyback Programme, pursuant to the Share Purchase Mandate granted by its shareholders at the Company’s previous AGM. The Company noted that shares repurchased will be held as treasury shares which will be used in part for the annual vesting of employee share plans, but also as possible currency for future M&A activities.

The table below summarises the buyback transactions of the 26 primary-listed stocks that conducted buybacks in January. The table is sorted by the value of the total consideration amount for the month, which combines the amount of shares or units purchased and the purchasing price of the transactions. 

 Source: SGX, Refinitiv, Bloomberg (Data as of 31 Jan 2022)

Share buyback transactions involve share issuers repurchasing some of their outstanding shares from shareholders through the open market. Once the shares are bought back, they can be converted into treasury shares, which means they are no longer categorised as shares outstanding. Motivations for share buybacks can include employee compensation plans (such as share option schemes or employee share purchase plans) or long term capital management. Buybacks have also been observed to broadly pick up amidst market declines that are driven by international macroeconomic developments.

Share buyback information can be found on the company disclosure page on the SGX website, using the Announcement category and sub-category of Share Buy Back-On Market (click here). As best practice, companies should refrain from buying back their shares during the two weeks immediately before semi-annual financial statements and one month immediately before the full-year financial statements.