19th April 2017

 

Singapore Company Highlights

 

Roland Thng, the founder and former chief executive officer of investment firm Dektos Investment Corp., said he plans to start an activist fund in Singapore targeting undervalued commodity firms.

The fund, yet to be named, may begin in July with assets of as much as $30 million, Thng said in an interview Monday. The vehicle will launch on the platform of Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte. and target long-term annual returns of more than 12 percent. Thng has already exited as CEO of Dektos, he said.

“My focus is in the commodities sector because many of the companies that survived the last seven to nine years of the commodities depression are now extremely undervalued,” Thng said. “The turnaround and strong growth stories will highly likely be in this sector for the next few years.”

Supply gluts have weighed on commodity prices, with the Bloomberg Commodity Index slipping this year to a level that is about one-third of its peak in 2008. After a 2016 rally that ended five straight years of declines, prices of everything from crude oil to sugar and soybeans are once again mired in slumps.

Thng said he would engage with the management of targeted companies and wants seats on boards “whenever possible.”

The focus on commodity firms will be for the next two or three years, Thng said, adding that the targets will generally be listed small- and mid-cap firms in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Thng founded Dektos in 2010 with managed accounts focusing on macro and equity strategies. He started activist hedge fund EVA Capital SP in 2015.