Public companies invested in Kingboard Laminates Holdings Limited (HKG:1888) copped the brunt of last week's HK$3.2b market cap decline

Key Insights

• Significant control over Kingboard Laminates Holdings by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The largest shareholder of the company is Kingboard Holdings Limited with a 74% stake
• 12% of Kingboard Laminates Holdings is held by Institutions

Every investor in Kingboard Laminates Holdings Limited (HKG:1888) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 74% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, public companies endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 10%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Kingboard Laminates Holdings, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Kingboard Laminates Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Kingboard Laminates Holdings?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Kingboard Laminates Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Kingboard Laminates Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Kingboard Laminates Holdings. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Kingboard Holdings Limited with 74% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.7% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 1.3% by the third-largest shareholder.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Kingboard Laminates Holdings

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our information suggests that Kingboard Laminates Holdings Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around HK$165m worth of shares (at current prices). Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 13% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Kingboard Laminates Holdings. 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 74% of the Kingboard Laminates Holdings shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Kingboard Laminates Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.