Battered Ezion turns to buybacks after steep share price crash

Its CEO will further boost his stake.

Liftboat operator Ezion has been struggling to keep its share price afloat ever since the oil downturn began. Analysts believe that the struggling firm is likely to roll out an aggressive share buyback scheme after its unit price crashed 26% after reporting poor Q2 results.

Maybank Kim Eng said in a report that Ezion and its CEO Chew Thiam Keng will step up their buyback transactions to take advantage of the counter’s “unwarranted” cheapness.

In August alone, CEO Chew has bought 500,000 Ezion shares, hiking his stake from 14.21% at the beginning of the month to 14.26%.

Other substantial shareholders such as hong Leong Malaysia and Peudential PLC have also bought a substantial number of Ezion shares.

Maybank Kim Eng believes that Ezion is well-positioned to ride out the oil downturn because of its ability to keep operational vessels fully utilised.

“The oil industry is acutely aware that sustained delays or neglect in maintenance work would impact future production. This underlies our confidence that Ezion is unlikely to face with the severe rate and utilisation pressures that offshore drillers and OSV owner are experiencing,” Maybank Kim Eng said.