Largest listed fund manager finds value play

Vincent Toe is the CEO of Yangzijiang Financial (YZJF), the largest fund management company listed on the SGX with an AUM of S$4.6 billion. It is backed by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (YZJ), one of the largest shipbuilders in the world.

Since it’s first day of trading in April 2022, YZJF’s share price has dived 40% to S$0.36. This is a 60% discount to its NAV of S$1.07.

YZJF was listed via introduction, where all YZJ shareholders were given YZJF shares. But not all the YZJ investors want exposure to a fund manager. From SGX records , T.Rowe Price Associates – a major shareholder of both YZJ and YZJF – has been shaving its interest in the latter. I believe this is a big reason behind the decline in its share price.

On a brighter note, YZJF has committed S$200m for share buyback. This should be sufficient to take out the remaining 195m shares of T.Rowe Price. At P/B of 0.4x, this may be one of the best value stocks that fund manager YZJF can find.