Serial System shares surge by over 40% after CEO's stock purchase

Serial System founder and CEO Derek Goh holds 40.5 per cent of the firm, after he bought 461,000 shares last Friday. PHOTO: SERIAL SYSTEM

SINGAPORE - Mainboard-listed semiconductor distributor Serial System surged by more than 40 per cent on Monday on heavy volume, after founder and chief executive Derek Goh announced he had bought shares in the company.

The stock closed at 14.5 cents, up 4.3 cents or 42.2 per cent, on a volume of 53.4 million at the end of trading on Monday.

This made it the eighth-most active stock and third-highest percentage gainer for the day.

The price surge comes after the company announced last week Mr Goh had acquired 461,000 Serial System shares last Friday for $47,072.71. This works out to an average price of 10.2 cents per share.

He now holds direct and deemed interest of 363,023,070 shares or 40.5 per cent of the company.

After struggling for the previous two years following the lost of its Texas Instruments distributorship in 2018, Serial System appears to have turned the corner.

About a week ago, the company unveiled a strong set of first-quarter results, showing net profit after tax of US$2.7 million (S$3.6 million) for the three months ended March 31. This was a sharp reversal from a loss of US$6.5 million during the same period a year earlier.

The firm attributed the stronger performance to its strategies to widen its supplier and customer base and improve efficiencies following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Speaking after the results, Mr Goh said the company was seeing a strong turnaround in its fortunes.

"There is a semiconductor shortage worldwide which strengthens the value proposition of an established distributor such as ourselves," he said.

"We have increased our base of chip suppliers as well as range of customers while continuing to focus on growth sectors such as automobile, data centres and 5G connectivity."

He added that the so-called "technology war" and chip shortage were playing out in favour of Serial System.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.