Singapore Buy of Abbey Stock Called Surprise

Health care industry observers expressed surprise at Abbey Healthcare Group Inc.’s announcement Friday that the government of Singapore has bought a 5.56% stake in the Costa Mesa-based provider of home health care services.

“It strikes me as really weird,” said Jim McCamant, editor of the Berkeley-based Medical Technology Stock Letter. “You hear about (foreign) governments investing in their own companies but not in companies in other countries.”

Observers said that the Singapore government occasionally invests in U.S.-based companies through various funds associated with its national retirement system.

Earlier this year, for example, the Singapore government took an 8.3% interest in BWIP Corp., a Long Beach pump manufacturer. Singapore officials told BWIP that they were steered to the stock by a New York brokerage and intended to keep the stock as a long-term investment, a BWIP spokesman said Friday.

According to a filing made this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Singapore’s government purchased 446,100 shares of Abbey common stock at prices ranging from $15.05 to $19.75 apiece, bringing its total Abbey holdings to 543,000 shares.

In Nasdaq trading Friday, Abbey’s stock jumped $1.375 to close at $16.50.