Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited

[gzbkel]

Henry Keswick, taipan who took Jardine Matheson back to China, 1938-2024
https://www.ft.com/content/78a26c3d-c991...f4010dbe75

[Shrivathsa]

Looking at JMH over the year, the bottom seems to have been Sep 5, had one huge run up after that from SKGD 35 to SKGD 40, due to the China stimulus measures probably,      .

The stimulus disappointment saw a retracement all the way back to SGD 36.6 on Oct 29
   

The run up after that seems to be due to Hong Kong Land announcement that it may inject its assets into a REIT.
   

The latest run up on Friday is likely due to Mandarin Oriental spiking up on Friday
    which is due to debt deleveraging from USD 225 million to USD 26 million 

In short, the factors for JMH seem to be 

a) China recovery
b) Value Unlock from HKL property investment  and
c) Debt reduction
 
It is always interesting to see what actually moves share prices up as sometimes price action reveals a lot more than analyst reports.

[weijian]

Hi Shrivathsa,

I don't really comment on share price movements but I think you may have some mis-conclusions and I keep myself short below:

(1) In the long(er) run, JMH's share price is relatively correlated to its child Jardine C&C's share price. And Jardine C&C's share price is correlated to Astra International's share price. In recent times, HKL's deterioration has indeed decoupled the JMH-Astra relationship though.

(2) Mandarin Oriental International is peanuts to JMH. The "spike up" in MOI share price is due to a block trade (~3%) done in 1 day and no surprise who the buyer is. But since MOI is not primarily listed here, it does not have to follow the disclosure rules and so it will only be officially announced when JMH publishes results next year. The reduction of debt from MOI is already expected as the Paris hotel/retail site sales were announced much earlier.

[weijian]

Jardine old hand John Witt will be gone before the end of the year and a PE (focused on AP) partner is replacing him as the new CEO of JMH. Together with the NED changes at BOD levels which "purged" all ex Jardine employees/insiders/Kewicks over the last 1-2years, the transformation at board and executive level is truly complete at JMH as well.

In the past decade, unless you bought at covid lows, OPMIs' TSRs from holding Jardine companies are anything but superior. So it is comforting to see that they are setting "challenging financial objectives to drive future growth and deliver superior TSR".

Some of the worst hit portfolio companies - HKL and DFI Retail have demonstrated tangible progress in the last 6-12months and their market values have recovered from earlier lows. 3-5years from now, will we see a Jardine comeback?

Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited Results for the Six Months ended 30 June 2025

We have set challenging financial objectives to drive future growth and deliver superior TSR.

As recently announced by DFI, a special dividend will be paid in the second half of the year, to be funded from the proceeds of business disposals by DFI as part of the simplification of its portfolio. The Company will use the dividend to reduce its net debt, in line with our intention, communicated at the full year, of prioritising the paying down of debt in order to provide investment flexibility for the future.

Following resilient performance over the past few years, Astra’s management is currently undertaking a comprehensive portfolio review to identify and assess initiatives that can be taken to enable the continued delivery of future growth and value in changing market conditions. The outputs from this review are expected in the first half of 2026. Jardines continues to view both Indonesia and Astra as strategic growth drivers and core long-term components of the Group’s portfolio.

In line with JC&C’s focus as an engaged investor, JC&C is currently working with its portfolio companies to review business strategy, priorities and initiatives to deliver future growth and improve returns. The process is expected to complete by the first half of 2026.

https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/JMH.ashx?...eID=853959

[specuvestor]

Hi Weijian

Interesting I've taken note as well but what do you mean the "purge" of Keswick?

Seems like Ben Keswick is the driver behind this after Henry Keswick passed the chair in 2018 and Adam Keswick still ED of the board

https://www.ft.com/content/d617d57e-a7db...6f19b05c7b

Jardine old hand John Witt will be gone before the end of the year and a PE (focused on AP) partner is replacing him as the new CEO of JMH. Together with the NED changes at BOD levels which "purged" all ex Jardine employees/insiders/Kewicks over the last 1-2years, the transformation at board and executive level is truly complete at JMH as well.