YTL Corporation Berhad's (KLSE:YTL) top owners are private companies with 58% stake, while 22% is held by institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over YTL Corporation Berhad by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 2 shareholders own 57% of the company
• Institutional ownership in YTL Corporation Berhad is 22%

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of YTL Corporation Berhad (KLSE:YTL), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 58% to be precise, is private companies. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Meanwhile, institutions make up 22% of the company’s shareholders. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones.

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

See our latest analysis for YTL Corporation Berhad

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About YTL Corporation Berhad?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in YTL Corporation Berhad. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of YTL Corporation Berhad, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

YTL Corporation Berhad is not owned by hedge funds. Yeoh Tiong Lay & Sons Family Holdings Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 48% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.7% and 3.6% of the stock. In addition, we found that Seok Kian Yeoh, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of YTL Corporation Berhad

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in YTL Corporation Berhad. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth RM1.8b. Most would see this as a real positive. It is good to see this level of investment by insiders. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 13% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 58%, of the YTL Corporation 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand YTL Corporation Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for YTL Corporation Berhad (of which 1 is potentially serious!) you should know about.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.