Listed companies splurged $1.1b to buy back shares in Q3

Find out who the biggest buyers were.

Locally-listed companies appear to have taken advantage of the sharp share price plunge in August and September to buy back their stocks in Q3. A report by the SGX revealed that listed firms spent a whopping $1.1b in share buy-backs last quarter, with majority of transactions completed during turbulent periods in August and September.

During the quarter, there were a total of 713,797,200 shares repurchased by 77 stocks. The five stocks with the largest considerations in buybacks from July to September 2015 were Global Logistic Properties, Wilmar International, Sinarmas Land, DBS Group Holdings and Singapore Airlines.

GLP started buying back shares on July 29, spending $224m to purchase 101.6 million shares. This represents 2.12% of its total issued shares.

Meanwhile, Wilmar International began buying shares on August 24, also known as the infamous "Black Monday" at which global bourses sustained painful losses. Wilmar spent $202.47m to buy 72.5 million shares, representing 1.18% of its total number of shares.

DBS Group spent $137.4m to buy 7.4 million shares starting August 23. This represents 0.45% of the total number of DBS shares.

Sinarmas Land also began snapping up its shares during Black Monday. The company has spent $89.7m to purchase 151.9 million shares.

Last but not least, Singapore Airlines has spent $79.8m to buy its shares in Q3. It has bought 58.6 million shares since July 30.

“There are two common motivations for a listed company to buy shares back from the open market – when they feel that their share price has been undervalued or simply to facilitate employee share option schemes. The former is typically cited when the share price reaches levels that are seen to provide good value for company capital. The latter will be of particular relevance amidst tight labour markets where companies offer share bonuses to employees,” SGX said.