City Developments Limited’s (SGX:C09) top owners are private companies with 54% stake,

Key Insights

• Significant control over City Developments by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions

• 54% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders

• Institutional ownership in City Developments is 14%

Every investor in City Developments Limited (SGX:C09) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 54% stake, private companies possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 32% of the company’s stockholders.

Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner of City Developments, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for City Developments

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About City Developments?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in City Developments. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of City Developments, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don’t have many shares in City Developments. The company’s largest shareholder is Hong Leong Investment Holdings Pte. Ltd., with ownership of 49%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.1% and 2.2% of the stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock’s expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of City Developments

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our information suggests that City Developments Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. However, it’s possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. Keep in mind that it’s a big company, and the insiders own S$2.9m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 32% stake in City Developments. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 54%, of the company’s shares. It’s hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Be aware that City Developments is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant…

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.