Hot stock: Nanofilm plummets 26% after market open
Yong Jun YuanSHARES of Nanofilm Technologies Nanofilm: MZH -28.81% fell 26 per cent in early morning trade on Monday after the company posted a net profit of S$17.9 million on Friday for the first half of this year, a 3.1 per cent fall from S$18.5 million in the year-ago period.
Separately, the company also announced on Friday that its chief operating officer Ricky Tan would step down on Aug 16 to pursue other opportunities following the group's reorganisation.
This comes after the chief executive and executive director Lee Liang Huang announced on June 23 that he would resign from his role due to health reasons. His resignation will take effect from Aug 21.
Executive chairman and company founder Shi Xu will assume the chief executive role in the interim until Mr Lee's successor is appointed.
When the company made its debut on the Singapore Exchange on Oct 30 last year at S$2.77 from its initial public offering price of S$2.59 per share, Dr Shi, who held a 53 per cent stake in the company with his wife, saw his fortune rise to almost S$1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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As at 9.02am, the mainboard-listed nanotechnology company's shares fell by 26.1 per cent to S$4.41, down S$1.56 after 308,100 shares changed hands.No married deals were made in early trade, according to ShareInvestor data.
In a research note on Monday before market open, Citi analyst Hussaini Saifee expected that Nanofilm's shares would trade down on Monday because of the company's disappointing H1 2021 results.
He noted that the company's 24 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue was way below earlier growth expectations of 42 per cent for FY2021. Nanofilm had noted in its press statement that the global chip shortage had impacted its growth in the first half of the year.
The company's smallest nanofabrication unit saw revenue decline 48 per cent year on year, which the analyst also found disappointing as it was expected to be the company's fastest-growing segment.
Mr Hussaini further assigned a "high risk" rating to Nanofilm's shares with a target price of S$7.85, since the company's growth is highly tied to R&D breakthroughs, with potential changes to his forecasted numbers after the company's analyst call on Monday.
