SINGAPORE – Construction and engineering company Soilbuild Construction on Dec 15 announced a proposed four-to-one stock split to increase affordability of its shares.
The proposed stock split comes after a meteoric 313 per cent rise in Soilbuild’s share price to date in 2025, having closed at 76 cents at the end of 2024. The counter was up 0.3 per cent, or one cent, to $3.15 as at 10.44am on Dec 15.
Soilbuild said the move will help reduce the price of each share, increase market liquidity and broaden the shareholder base.
It currently has an issued and paid-up share capital of about $107.9 million from about 165.5 million shares. The split will add about 496.4 million shares.
An extraordinary general meeting to vote on the proposal will be held on Jan 5.
The proposal means that an investor holding 100 shares will hold 400 shares after the split, with no change in total value. Shareholders whose shareholdings are not multiples of 100 may trade their shares in odd lots in any quantity which is not a multiple of 100 on the SGX unit share market, said Soilbuild.
Soildbuild cited an improved construction market outlook, the group’s strong financial performance for the first six months ended Jun 30, and the “positive impact” of the Equity Market Development Programme as reasons for the share price run-up.
“Since the increase in the price of each share, the company has also observed a decrease in the general trading volume of the shares,” said Soilbuild.
The proposed share split is intended to reduce the price of each share. This, it said, will make each share and each board lot of shares more affordable.
That will “encourage greater participation” by general investors. providing greater flexibility in terms of the size of the trades to investors with different investment profiles.
The reduced price of each board lot of shares may also make the shares more accessible and attractive to both existing and potential investors and enhance the trading liquidity of the shares over time, said Soilbuild.
The increased number of shares available after the split may also result in a broadening of the shareholder base, it added.
Despite the positives, Soilbuild warned that there is no assurance that the split will achieve the desired results or benefit all shareholders. There is also no assurance of the benefits being sustained in the longer term, it said.
If the proposal is passed at next year’s meeting, the 4-to-1 share split will be scheduled around a record date that will be announced by the company’s directors.
Because trades take two days to settle, the new shares will commence trading on a post-split basis one market day prior to the record date.
However, the legal subdivision of shares will not occur until the share split effective date, which will fall one market day after the record date. At that time, every share held by shareholders registered as at the record date will be officially split into four.
THE BUSINESS TIMES