On Thursday Mar 12th, Haw Par’s share price was back to the $3.30 low first reached on Oct 28 ’08, ie before Mr Wee’s open market purchases led to a scramble to pile into the stock. (Mr Wee first bought 691,000 shares on Dec 5th, but reported only a week ago, at $3.38, and by Dec 31st, had bought another 429,000 shares at up to $3.60 each.)

Haw Par’s share price hit a high of $4.09 (+24%) 2 months ago, and has since fallen 19%.

Haw Par, whose biggest investment is its estimated 4% stake in UOB (about 62.88 mln shares), has NAV of $6.69 as at end ’08. This varies much according to share price movements of UOB shares, eg between end ’08 and end ’07, Haw Par’s NAV fell 35% vs 31% decline in UOB’s share price between the 2 points. $12.92 vs $19.90. With UOB at $8.95, Haw Par’s NAV would have fallen about 30% to the $4.60 - $4.70 level.

(Haw Par has investments, Available For Sale Financial Assets, carried in the books at end ‘08 totaling $1009.88 mln: $758.22 mln under Non-Current Assets, and $251.66 mln under Current Assets.)

Treat Haw Par therefore as no more than a “value” stock (the UOB shares are however unlikely ever to be sold), and not because Mr Wee is about to privatize it, as it can be a long wait.

Haw Par rebounded to $3.36 on Friday. UOB, on the other hand, has rebounded 9% to $8.95, after hitting a multi-year low of $8.20 last Monday Mar 9th.