New Singapore activist hedge fund seeks to shake up companies

[CityFarmer]

It is a good news to local market. It is beneficial to the activist fund, to OPMI, and as well as SGX, IMO...

New Singapore activist hedge fund seeks to shake up companies

SINGAPORE (Feb 4): Roland Thng is seeking to shake up Singapore’s staid corporate landscape, setting up a new hedge fund focused exclusively on influencing the way locally listed companies are run.

The 33-year-old has established EVA Capital SP with US$5 million, and initially plans to take stakes in small-and medium-sized construction and engineering companies in order to pressure them to improve performance.

“It’s a new approach and the market will need some time to get used to it,” Thng, who is chief executive officer of Singapore-based fund-management firm Dektos Investment Corp, which runs EVA Capital, said in an interview.

“Activist investing is a bit offensive in the Singapore and Asian context.”

Many Singapore companies have a controlling shareholder, which makes it easier to resist demands from activist investors, said Hugh Young, the Asia managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore.

“It also isn’t the cultural norm,” Young said. “It’s all more consensual in Asia, less confrontational. Things have been done a lot more quietly, behind closed doors.”
...
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article...-companies

[opmi]

^^ probably he means Construction companies with PROPERTIES. THATS where the undervaluation is.

[BlueKelah]

It is a good news to local market. It is beneficial to the activist fund, to OPMI, and as well as SGX, IMO...

New Singapore activist hedge fund seeks to shake up companies

SINGAPORE (Feb 4): Roland Thng is seeking to shake up Singapore’s staid corporate landscape, setting up a new hedge fund focused exclusively on influencing the way locally listed companies are run.

The 33-year-old has established EVA Capital SP with US$5 million, and initially plans to take stakes in small-and medium-sized construction and engineering companies in order to pressure them to improve performance.

“It’s a new approach and the market will need some time to get used to it,” Thng, who is chief executive officer of Singapore-based fund-management firm Dektos Investment Corp, which runs EVA Capital, said in an interview.

“Activist investing is a bit offensive in the Singapore and Asian context.”

Many Singapore companies have a controlling shareholder, which makes it easier to resist demands from activist investors, said Hugh Young, the Asia managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore.

“It also isn’t the cultural norm,” Young said. “It’s all more consensual in Asia, less confrontational. Things have been done a lot more quietly, behind closed doors.”
...
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article...-companies

wonder which stocks they are buying up? definitely would be worth it to load up on whatever they are buying, though 5 million may be only enough to take out micro-cap shares.

[opmi]

Founded in January 2010, Dektos together with its affiliates is a private fund management firm headquartered in Singapore.

We manage global assets across equity, fixed income, currency and commodity asset classes for our global clientele.

Currently, our investment strategies include Macro, Asian-focused Value Equities and Asian-focused Event Driven Activist.

Roland Jude Thng
Founder, Chief Executive Officer &
Chief Investment Officer
Prior to founding Dektos, Roland worked as a FX Trader at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) where he specialized in trading Asian FX Non-Deliverable Forwards (NDFs) and the Majors. Before OCBC, Roland was employed by Goldenberg Hehmeyer Unicom Phillip Capital (GHUP) as a proprietary Asian Equity Index Derivatives Trader. His investment management experience also included the National University of Singapore (NUS) Investment Office where he researched on strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies for the multi-billion endowment fund.

Roland received a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) in Finance from NUS.

DAR Wong
Investment Strategist
Before Dektos, DAR worked as an institutional trader specializing in global derivatives and FX markets. His decades of experience span through Bank of America Futures Inc, Bankers Trust Futures Inc, Barclays ZW Futures Inc and Smith Barney Shearson Inc (Citigroup). Following his institutional tenures, Dar became a profitable Local trader on the floor of SIMEX.

Currently, DAR is a regular financial columnist for Borneo Post, 资汇报 and other financial magazines like 资本杂志, 东盟商界 etc. Also DAR is a panel speaker for the annual Global Rubber Conference and an associate member of the International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB). In 2013, DAR is nominated as the Vice Chairman of ASEAN-China Commerce Association to establish bilateral ties with CA-Expo in China, Guangxi Province.

Joseph Ong
Chief Operations Officer
Prior to joining Dektos, Joseph worked at Hartawan Holdings Ltd. where he was a Key Executive Member of the Singapore listed company. At Hartawan, he managed a portfolio of real estate investments, took part in corporate finance activities and served as the General Manager of Hotel Re! @ Pearl's Hill taking care of all operational functions of the hotel. Before Hartawan, Joseph was employed by APM Terminals International B.V. as a Business Development Executive where he conducted risk-based analysis on real shipping assets in the ASEAN region.

Joseph received a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) in Finance from NUS. He also received a Master of Business Administration from the Queen Margaret University (Edinburgh).

INDEPENDENT ADVISOR
Professor Chng Hak Kee
Professor Chng currently serves as an Independent Advisor of Dektos, advising the overall business management practices of the firm. Prior to Dektos, Professor Chng was a Senior Lecturer at NUS, specialising on Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) management and development in Asia. Also Professor Chng brings with him decades of consulting experience, where he advised both private and public companies, bringing them to greater heights.

Professor Chng received a Bachelor of Commerce from Nanyang University. He also received a Master of Business Administration from Hawaii University and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Warwick.


Dato' Seri Winstedt Chong, PBM <<< Likely the money comes from this guy...

Chairman
Dato' Seri Winstedt Chong, PBM is a veteran and astute investor with more than 30 years of experience in public listed and private companies. Right before Dektos, he was the Executive Chairman at Hartawan Holdings Ltd, spearheading management, formulation of business plans and development of the Group. He successfully completed a USD 300 million reverse takeover (RTO) exercise to transform Hartawan Holdings Ltd to a gold mining business.

He is well-recognized in the public sector and has been awarded the Long Service Award in Education, Public Service Medal (PBM) and the conferment of Dato and Dato' Seri.

[CityFarmer]

It is a good news to local market. It is beneficial to the activist fund, to OPMI, and as well as SGX, IMO...

New Singapore activist hedge fund seeks to shake up companies

SINGAPORE (Feb 4): Roland Thng is seeking to shake up Singapore’s staid corporate landscape, setting up a new hedge fund focused exclusively on influencing the way locally listed companies are run.

The 33-year-old has established EVA Capital SP with US$5 million, and initially plans to take stakes in small-and medium-sized construction and engineering companies in order to pressure them to improve performance.

“It’s a new approach and the market will need some time to get used to it,” Thng, who is chief executive officer of Singapore-based fund-management firm Dektos Investment Corp, which runs EVA Capital, said in an interview.

“Activist investing is a bit offensive in the Singapore and Asian context.”

Many Singapore companies have a controlling shareholder, which makes it easier to resist demands from activist investors, said Hugh Young, the Asia managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore.

“It also isn’t the cultural norm,” Young said. “It’s all more consensual in Asia, less confrontational. Things have been done a lot more quietly, behind closed doors.”
...
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article...-companies

wonder which stocks they are buying up? definitely would be worth it to load up on whatever they are buying, though 5 million may be only enough to take out micro-cap shares.

If you read further on the article, here is the answer May be time to revisit property stock, especially the small-caps...

"The fund has already bought a stake of about 2 percent in engineering firm Hock Lian Seng Holdings ( Financial Dashboard), he said. The company has a market capitalization of S$181 million, a dividend yield of 5.1 percent and trades at 9.6 times its earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."

[opmi]

^^ a lot of NUS people...got courage to 'play bastard' or not???

[natnavi]

It looks like a noble cause but they did specify how they would like to improve the performance of these construction company, and what sort of performance are they looking at. Is it just in terms of profit? Or does it include productivity.
Many construction can stick to hiring cheap foreign labour and increase selling prices to achieve a better performance in their profit.
However, if their main aim is to push these companies into investing into machinery and training, in order to reduce their reliance on labour and hence increase the company's performance in the long run, then would it truly be a noble cause.

[opmi]

It looks like a noble cause but they did specify how they would like to improve the performance of these construction company, and what sort of performance are they looking at. Is it just in terms of profit? Or does it include productivity.
Many construction can stick to hiring cheap foreign labour and increase selling prices to achieve a better performance in their profit.
However, if their main aim is to push these companies into investing into machinery and training, in order to reduce their reliance on labour and hence increase the company's performance in the long run, then would it truly be a noble cause.

they are not PE funds. I doubt they are interested in improving operations. given their background, I doubt they can.

I guess they just want these companies to sell away their properties and return their cash to shareholders.

[Dividend Hermit]

Same Winstedt Chong?

Links Island Holding Chairman Charged for Rigging Shares of Yongnam
http://bschool.nus.edu.sg/Portals/0/imag...202004.pdf
(Page 5)

NUS publication some more

[CityFarmer]

It looks like a noble cause but they did specify how they would like to improve the performance of these construction company, and what sort of performance are they looking at. Is it just in terms of profit? Or does it include productivity.
Many construction can stick to hiring cheap foreign labour and increase selling prices to achieve a better performance in their profit.
However, if their main aim is to push these companies into investing into machinery and training, in order to reduce their reliance on labour and hence increase the company's performance in the long run, then would it truly be a noble cause.

they are not PE funds. I doubt they are interested in improving operations. given their background, I doubt they can.

I guess they just want these companies to sell away their properties and return their cash to shareholders.

I agree with opmi. The fund will do, what Carl Icahn has done with Apple Inc.