The table of developers shows the top 20 real estate (including CapitaLand India Trust) by market capitalisation. A handful of developers with low price to book ratios have been laggards. The most obvious are Frasers Property (FPL), Wing Tai Holdings, OUE and Hong Fok. The reasons are varied. For FPL it is possible a liquidity issue. Nonetheless, these stocks could provide some upside if they catch up with the leaders. Among the big caps, Hongkong Land and UOL Group are inevitably the companies for the rest of the sector to look up to.
The top performer among the top 20 largest companies is Banyan Group. Its total return for this year is more than 100% and it’s price to book ratio remains below 1. Banyan Group has adopted an asset light strategy which has helped the company turn profitable, and to grow its profits, narrowing the discount between its share price and book value. How much further Banyan Group has to run remains to be seen.
