Centurion/ Lian Beng

Centurion/ Lian Beng: Lian Beng has emerged as a substantial shareholder in Centurion with a 5.03% stake, after the group acquired 38m shares via a married trade at $0.57, alongside other private investors who took up an additional 42m shares. The vendors of the shares sale were Centurion's controlling shareholders, Centurion Properties and David Loh Kim Kang, who sold 70m and 10m shares respectively, reducing their aggregate shareholdings from 65.98% to 55.4%. Through the shares sale Centurion aims to increase the public float and market liquidity of its shares, and its controlling shareholders have undertaken not to sell or place out any more shares over the next 18 months. Since the RTO of Centurion in 2011, Centurion has rapidly expanded its accommodation portfolio across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia. In just two-and-a-half years, its accommodation business has grown from 5,300 beds to the present capacity of 34,000 beds, with plans to grow to over 50,000 beds by the end of 2015. The counter spiked to a high of $0.665 after it resumed trading at 2.30pm, as investors take confidence of the group's growth prospects. At $0.665, Centurion trades at 1.7x P/B and 26.7x core P/E.