T Rowe Price has emerged as a significant shareholder in Singapore-listed Chinese shipbuilder Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings.
The US-listed asset manager now an 8.6% stake in China’s largest privately-owned shipbuilder, according to regulatory filings.
T Rowe Price recently passed the 8% threshold after acquiring 5.8m shares in Yangzijiang at a cost of SGD 0.99 (71 US cents) per share.
Previously T Rowe Price Associates increased its deemed interest above the 7% threshold in December 2021 and above the 6% threshold in April the same year.
Its deemed interest in Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings is spread across multiple portfolios such as the T Rowe Price Emerging Markets Discovery Stock Fund, T Rowe Price International Discovery Fund and T Rowe Price International Value Equity Fund, according to data from Bloomberg.
Last year, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding secured newbuilding orders for 124 vessels worth $7.4bn, in what was its highest-ever annual order win since its listing in Singapore.
At the end 2021, the shipbuilder had an existing orderbook of $8.5bn for 157 vessels, with containerships accounting for just over $7bn, or 83%, of total existing contract value.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding recently spun off its investment arm, YZJ Financial Holdings (YZJFH), into a separately listed company on the Singapore Exchange.
Analysts expect to see a re-rating for the stock post the spin-off, as it removes an overhang for the stock, leaving for a “cleaner, shipbuilding-focused entity”.
“We believe that the current valuation for Yangzijiang Shipbuilding ex YZJFH does not recognise how the company has transformed its shipbuilding business in the past 15 years,” UOB Kay Hian analyst Adrian Loh said earlier this year.
“The 2007-21 period saw the company doubling the number of its yards to four at present and more importantly, its orderbook in terms of compensated gross tonnage has increased by 3.5x to 8.8m tonnes.
“This indicates that the productivity and amount of work that Yangzijiang Shipbuilding puts into a new ship order has grown materially in the past 15 years,” he said.
