Aztech Global Disastrous Financial Performance and Share Price Since IPO.

Aztech Global listed in March 2021 at S$1.28 per share. Its current share price has plunged by a jaw dropping -47% to S$0.675 per share since IPO. I can't help but feel a sense of Deja Vu as Aztech reminded me of the many short drama plots about "Reborn" and reliving a previous life. Back in March 8, 2021, I have posted a blog on 5 reasons on why I will be giving this IPO a miss. Given that Aztech just recently announced a -21.2% drop in net profit to S$10.8Mil for 3rd quarter ending September 30, 2025 as well as declining revenue for 3rd quarter with a horrendous -19.9% plunge to S$133.5Mil from S$166.7Mil, the probability of it following the old playbook of privatising at a huge discount seems to be imminent (personal thoughts only).  

Aztech is another classic example of why retail investors should not be too fixated on high dividend (7%-8%) yield without considering other business factors such as type of business and associated risks as well as track record of management team.

Investment Portfolios Updates (27 June 2025) - Net Investment of S$750K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$46K.

Singapore REITs suddenly sprang back to life with the anticpation of 2 more rate cuts in 2nd half of FY2025. More funds also moved from overseas markets into the local SGX. My gross portfolio managed to hit the above S$1.02Mil mark again albeit the see-saw ride from Donald Trump's erratic policies from import tariff fight with other countries (the most recent one is with Canada and sending US airforce to bomb Iran). Net investment (including cash) is approximately S$750K as at 27 June 2025. I guess this is not bad considering that I had cashed out S$10k from my unit trust bond funds for personal expenses usage.

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks Held in SGX Central Depository 

2. Portfolio 2- Margin Purchased Securities

(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through dividends generated.) 

Have continued paying down my margin loan from S$272K to S$267K. Going forward, will target to bring the margin loan utilisation down to S$250k hopefully by year end in case Donald Trump screw up the world economies again.

In addition, I have also sold off part of my Keppel Corp stocks (1,000 shares) as its price hit over S$7.35 per share to recycle the capital into Alibaba (9988).

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

I have added 400 shares of Alibaba when its price drop back to HKD110- HKD113 range over the past few months as it is now a cloud and also AI tech play on top of its usual core E-commerce business.

Also added 10,000 units of Lendlease Commercial REIT in end May 2025 when its price plunged to S$0.480 per unit. Its price has since recovered to S$0.525 per unit as at 27 June 2025.

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have taken out S$10K from my Higher Income Endowus portfolio for personal usage. Also did a bit of rebalancing and direct purchase of PIMCO bond fund as well as Pine Bridge Asia Pacific fixed income fund. 

In addition, decided to buy into the Fidelity APAC Dividend Fund to to reduce US equities exposure in my unit trusts portfolio as US market is way overvalued (near 52 weeks high and extremely high PE ratio for many US firms) right now. 

Parting Thoughts

I am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be at least 2 more rate cuts this year so that interest rates go down and REITs continue to increase their distributions.

Aztech Global IPO- 5 Reasons Why I Am Giving It A MISS!

Aztech is back again with a new IPO of its "Internet of Things ("IoT") & Data Communication products,  LED lighting products and Kitchen appliances electronic manufacturing business this time. Why did I use "back again"? Well, Aztech was previously listed on the SGX before getting privatized in a not too fantastic deal on 20 September 2016. Aztech's share price had fallen drastically from S$1 per share in May 2015 to S$0.32 per share on 16 September 2016. The Aztech Group was then subsequently taken private with the co-founder and CEO offering a S$0.42 per share. I have a personal bad feel about management buying out retail investors at a low price and then repackaging a few years later to come back with an IPO at S$1.20 per share. What if the same tragedy happens again?

I will just do a quick sum up of my personal thoughts on why I am avoiding Aztech Global Ltd:

1. Aztech Global has disclosed the key business risk that its manufacturing facility in Dongguan do not have the necessary certification in right of use which may lead to disruption in supply and also potential breach of contract for late delivery due to the potential disruption.
Wow, this is an extremely risky event and a bad omen to kick off the IPO with no better certainty. Shouldn't Aztech Global delay the IPO till this issue has been settled? They seemed desperate to launch the IPO to raise funds. 

2. Risk of Illiquid Shares- Deja Vu of what happened in the previous Aztech Group version. 

There is a possibility that even if one wanted to sell the stocks, there will not be sufficient buyers just like the good old days a few years back in another listed company called Aztech Group before it was privatized cheaply. 

3.  Strange low NTA of S$0.2598 per share post IPO share capital of 773,720,000 shares relative to IPO asking price of S$1.20 per share.

This is the weird part. Aztech Global's NTA per share is only S$0.2598 relative to IPO price of S$1.28 per share. In the case of immediate liquidation, it's a huge drop in recoverable amount. I am unable to ascertain whether this was due to investment property at historical issue and not marked up to fair market valuation.

 

4. Customer concentration risk and unknown customers to assess quality of clients and potential bad debt

The customers here are very secretive. While this is fine due to commercial and operational rationale, it does not appear transparent or informative for assessment on credit risk especially when these 3 top customers made up such a huge chunk of Aztech Global's revenue generation. 

5. Kay Lee Roast Meat acquisition did not workout in 2014- From Targeted 10 Kay Lee Restaurants to only 1 outlet

Aztech used to venture into F&B businesses. It made headlines in 2014 when it bought over the secret recipe of their roast meat and premises from Ha Wai Kay and Betty Kong for a whopping S$4Mil. The biggest Kay Lee restaurant opened in Suntec City which could seat 100 diners anytime. However, all Kay Lee Restaurants had since folded with only the original one at Upper Paya Lebar Road.

Now you may ask what has roast meat got to do with this IPO being good or not? Well, my personal thoughts are that it does matter. It depicted the track record of building up a new business by the Aztech management team.

Parting Thoughts:
The Aztech Global new IPO will cut off by 12pm, 10 March 2021. Based on the above, I will be staying far far away from this IPO.