Key Insights

• CapitaLand Investment's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• The largest shareholder of the company is Bartley Investments Pte. Ltd. with a 54% stake

• Institutional ownership in CapitaLand Investment is 13%

If you want to know who really controls CapitaLand Investment Limited (SGX:9CI), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 54% to be precise, is private companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And individual investors on the other hand have a 32% ownership in the company.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of CapitaLand Investment, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CapitaLand Investment?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that CapitaLand Investment does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 CapitaLand Investment's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in CapitaLand Investment. Bartley Investments Pte. Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 54% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 2.2% and 2.1% of the stock.

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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of CapitaLand Investment

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of CapitaLand Investment Limited. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own S$27m of stock. 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 32% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over CapitaLand Investment. 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 54%, of the CapitaLand Investment 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.