Who Are The Major Shareholders Of Bukit Sembawang Estates Limited (SGX:B61)?

Micheal Lombardo

Updated Fri, Jun 8, 2018, 6:41 PM

In this article, I will take a quick look at Bukit Sembawang Estates Limited’s (SGX:B61) recent ownership structure – an unconventional investing subject, but an important one. The impact of a company’s ownership structure affects both its short- and long-term performance. Since the effect of an active institutional investor with a similar ownership as a passive pension-fund can be vastly different on a company’s corporate governance and accountability of shareholders, investors should take a closer look at B61’s shareholder registry.

Check out our latest analysis for Bukit Sembawang Estates

Institutional Ownership

With an institutional ownership of 17.06%, B61 can face volatile stock price movements if institutions execute block trades on the open market, more so, when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade However, as not all institutions are alike, such high volatility events, especially in the short-term, have been more frequently linked to active market participants like hedge funds. For shareholders in B61, sharp price movements may not be a major concern as active hedge funds hold a relatively small stake in the company. Although this doesn’t necessarily lead to high short-term volatility, we should dig deeper into B61’s ownership structure to find how the remaining owner types can affect its investment profile.

Insider Ownership

I find insiders are another important group of stakeholders, who are directly involved in making key decisions related to the use of capital. In essence, insider ownership is more about the alignment of shareholders’ interests with the management. B61 insiders hold a minor stake in the company, which somewhat aligns their interests with that of shareholders. However, a higher level of insider ownership has been linked to management executing on high-returning projects instead of expansion projects for the sake of apparent growth. In addition to this, it may be interesting to look at insider buying and selling activities. Keep in mind that buying may be sign of upbeat future expectations, but selling doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite as the insiders might just be doing it out of their personal financial needs.

General Public Ownership

A big stake of 34.09% in B61 is held by the general public. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in major company policies that affect shareholders returns, including executive remuneration and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.

Private Company Ownership

Another group of owners that a potential investor in B61 should consider are private companies, with a stake of 48.24%. While they invest more often due to strategic interests, an investment can also be driven by capital gains through share price appreciation. An ownership of this size indicates a strong financial backing and has the potential to influence B61’s business strategy. Thus, investors should dig deeper into B61’s business relations with these companies and how it can affect shareholder returns in the long-term.

Next Steps:

B61’s considerably high level of institutional ownership calls for further analysis into its margin of safety. This is to avoid getting trapped in a sustained sell-off that is often observed in stocks with this level of institutional participation. However, ownership structure should not be the only focus of your research when constructing an investment thesis around B61. Instead, you should be evaluating company-specific factors such as the intrinsic valuation, which is a key driver of Bukit Sembawang Estates’s share price. I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for B61’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for B61’s outlook.
Past Track Record: Has B61 been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of B61’s historicals for more clarity.
Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.