Friday 18 September 2009

More S-chips go on charm offensive

More S-chips are going on a charm offensive to revive interest among institutional investors. And their choice of weapons are roadshows, meetings and investor conferences.

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Guanyu said...

More S-chips go on charm offensive

Roadshows, investor conferences feature in drive to draw institutional interest

By LYNETTE KHOO
16 September 2009

More S-chips are going on a charm offensive to revive interest among institutional investors. And their choice of weapons are roadshows, meetings and investor conferences.

Among them is Midas Holdings, which is having a roadshow in New York this week organised by Kim Eng Securities and Sinotel Technologies, which is conducting its first-ever publicity roadshow to meet US investment professionals this month.

‘We believe that attracting institutional investors and funds can help to meet the company’s objective of attracting longer term investors,’ said Ben Ng, Sinotel’s investor relations vice-president, who was in San Deigo. The roadshow started in New York on Sept 8 and will end tomorrow in Los Angeles.

In New York last week, Sinotel management also attended the Rodman and Renshaw conference to meet investment professionals from around the world.

In Singapore, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, China Animal Healthcare and China Zaino are attending Financial PR Investor Conference today to meet international fund houses from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and the US.

Interest in S-chips has crept back, compared to a few months ago when the market rally was fuelled by blue chips. Many funds keep their stakes below 5 per cent, which does not require mandatory disclosure of stakeholding, or hold the shares under nominees.

‘The recent privatisations and dual listings have brought back some attention to S-chips. It’s better than before but of course, nothing compares to the heydays,’ said Chan Tuck Sing, executive director of UOB-KayHian.

He was referring to the string of announcements by China Precision and Sihuan Pharmaceutical to delist as well as dual listing plans proposed by China XLX and Z-Obee.

But the closing of smaller hedge funds here since the Lehman collapse has affected the institutional shareholder base for S-chips, Mr. Chan said. Historically, smaller hedge funds were key institutional investors in S-chips.

Some small-cap funds with the mandate to invest in smaller companies have also closed, noted Wong Sui Jau, general manager of Fundsupermart.

While it is early days to gauge the impact of these publicity efforts by S-chips, new capital has been raised in some cases.

At Yangzijiang, which has put on its publicity armour since late last year, institutional investors account for over 35 per cent of its free float. The investors include JPMorgan, HSBC Trinkaus, UBS Global Asset Management, RBC Global Investment, State Street Global Advisors, Vanguard and Blackrock Investment.

‘We can conclude that the institutional interest in the company’s stock is relatively high,’ a Yangzijiang spokesman said.

Sinotel has also recently added US-based Barron Partners LP to its shareholders list. Its application for an American Depository Receipts (ADRs) facility in the US has been approved and effected on Monday and it is now in the process of appointing a market maker.

As a sign of rising institutional interest, many individual investors were turned away at Sinotel’s share placement earlier this month because of overwhelming orders from funds, Mr. Ng said.

Last month, Pan Hong Property Group raised a net $11.8 million through a share placement to Bocom International Holdings, which took a 4.64 per cent stake. Bocom is the investment banking and broking subsidiary of Bank of Communications, one of the top five banks in China.

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Bocom deputy chief executive Liu Qiang said this decision was underpinned by confidence in the sector, the group’s management and financial track record. Pan Hong has also been a long-time customer of BOC in Zhejiang and Jiangxi in China as well as in Hong Kong.

‘At a suitable time, we will increase our investments (in Singapore),’ Mr. Liu told BT. ‘Besides S-chips, we also look at Singapore firms, particularly the banks, the offshore marine and property companies.’

Market players believe that interest in S-chips will remain selective, with the spotlight falling on bigger S-chips and those with more exciting business stories to tell.

‘After the big scare where S-chips or their major shareholders have problems, obviously the reception towards them is one of caution,’ Mr. Chan of UOB-KayHian said.

On the other side of the coin, ‘those left behind now and have survived the last round of cleansing are supposedly more credible,’ he added.