Sunway Berhad's (KLSE:SUNWAY) largest shareholders are private companies with 49% ownership, individual investors own 23%

Key Insights

• Significant control over Sunway Berhad by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 2 shareholders own 56% of the company
• 11% of Sunway Berhad is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Sunway Berhad (KLSE:SUNWAY), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 49% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And individual investors on the other hand have a 23% ownership in the company.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Sunway Berhad.

View our latest analysis for Sunway Berhad

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sunway Berhad?

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.

Sunway Berhad already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Sunway Berhad's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Sunway Berhad. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Sungei Way Corporation Sdn Bhd with 45% of shares outstanding. Fook Ling Cheah is the second largest shareholder owning 11% of common stock, and Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia holds about 6.0% of the company stock. Fook Ling Cheah, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Top Key Executive.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Sunway Berhad

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Sunway Berhad. Insiders own RM2.4b worth of shares in the RM21b company. That's quite meaningful. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

With a 23% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Sunway Berhad. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 49%, of the Sunway Berhad stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Sunway Berhad (including 1 which is potentially serious) .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com