[SINGAPORE] Shares of Ho Bee Land, usually thinly traded, were up on Monday (Jun 9) after the company said founder and executive chairman Chua Thian Poh had upped his stake in the real estate company over the weekend.
The counter opened at S$1.80 on Monday and gained as much as S$0.12 or 6.7 per cent in the morning, before closing at S$1.89, up 5 per cent on the day. Some 1.3 million shares were traded.
On Jun 5, Ho Bee Holdings, a vehicle controlled by Chua, acquired 137,900 shares for S$248,220, or S$1.80 per share, raising his stake in the company to around 75.68 per cent, from 75.66 per cent.
The deemed interest after the transaction comprises 500.06 million shares held by Ho Bee Holdings, 1.41 million shares held by Kingdom Investment Holdings and 1.07 million shares held by Chua’s wife, Ng Noi Hinoy.
Kingdom Investment Holdings is 96 per cent owned by Ho Bee Holdings. Chua owns 82.5 per cent of the shares in Ho Bee Holdings.
Both Chua, 76, and his son Nicholas, 49, who is chief executive officer, have been accumulating shares in the last few months.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Tuesday, 12 pm
Property Insights
Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond.
Since May 14, the elder Chua has bought a total of 366,100 shares for a total of S$652,763. This translates to an average price of S$1.783 per share.
Nicholas Chua, who was named CEO in 2022 and also serves as Ho Bee Land’s executive director, bought some 158,000 shares in April. On Apr 17, he purchased 45,000 shares for S$80,100 at S$1.78 per share. On Apr 15, the younger Chua bought 113,000 shares for S$200,010, or S$1.77 apiece.
Ho Bee Land’s current share price of S$1.89 is 66 per cent below its net asset value per share, which its 2024 annual report put at S$5.56. The counter is down 39 per cent from its all-time high of S$3.08 in April 2022.
Asked on Monday whether the Chua family intends to take Ho Bee Land private, the company declined to comment. The tightly held company has been the subject of speculation about privatisation for years.
This year, Ho Bee Land made several changes to its board in April.
Ong Chong Hua, 70, who joined Ho Bee Land in 1995, retired as executive director and chief operating officer of the company on Apr 28. He had worked closely with the Chua family to chart the group’s investment, development and marketing strategies.
Independent non-executive director Ko Kheng Hwa also stepped down in April 2025 after a nine-year tenure. In the same month, Esmond Choo was appointed as an independent non-executive director.
A property veteran who declined to be named said that in the last few years, longstanding management staff of Ho Bee Land have been replaced by new hires.
She said: “The company has been moving slowly from a family business to a more corporate structure, where the family retains ownership and management, but is also leveraging persons with industry know-how.”
In June 2023, former investment banker Li Xiangrun joined the group as head of finance. Roy Lim, who was previously Perennial’s head of investments, was appointed chief of staff in December 2024, while ESR Group’s former group head of human resources, Celeste Tay, was named head of people and culture in February 2025.
Ho Bee Land reported a net profit of S$109.7 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2024, moving back into the black after a net loss of S$259 million in FY2023. The improvement was driven by the growth of development property sales in Australia and contributions from the sale of a 49 per cent stake in Elementum, the group’s landmark biomedical life-sciences development in Buona Vista, to a sovereign wealth fund.
A market watcher said that post-Covid-19, Ho Bee Land’s stock likely got sold down because of its large market exposure to the UK, where the office market has been weak with workers’ slow return to office.
He said: “Any offer (made) has to be reasonable and fair, and close to the net asset value.”
He noted how interest rates are likely to have peaked and are expected to come down, and Ho Bee Land may have to pay a higher price if they wait longer.
“As interest rates rise, their cap rates will rise and valuations will fall.”
Others do not think the recent changes in shareholding point to a privatisation offer anytime soon.
Alan Cheong, Savills Singapore’s executive director of research and consultancy, said: “For an owner of a company, who knows the financial state of his whole company inside out, buying at such steep a discount is like buying another asset of the same market value at distressed prices. But because he knows his own company’s financial health full well, there is no due diligence risk.”
Ho Bee Land holds almost S$5.2 billion in investment properties, of which S$2.8 billion worth are freehold, and is widely known as the pioneer of luxury residential developments in Sentosa Cove. Its assets include The Metropolis, a Grade A office building in the one-north commercial hub.
In its latest annual report, it noted that its UK portfolio of eight prime London office buildings is valued at £1.7 billion (S$3 billion). “After a challenging period in 2023, valuations have now stabilised, with rental income holding steady at £88.9 million,” the company said.
Ho Bee Land also holds property in Australia, and 1 per cent of its portfolio is in China.
