Perched below the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong, inside the city’s tallest skyscraper, is one of the biggest mysteries of the investing world.
There, on the 66th floor of the International Commerce Center, lies the headquarters of an obscure company that, at first glance, looks like a wild success. Its stock has bested everything in its class with a staggering five-year run: 8,563 percent.
But ask local market veterans about China Ding Yi Feng Holdings Ltd., and they’ll tell you the rally makes little sense. The investment-holding company has lost money for seven of the past eight years; its stock trades at one of highest valuations worldwide; and DYF’s chairman, a Taoist scholar who boasts investing skills on par with those of Warren Buffett and George Soros, has recently been the subject of several critical reports in Chinese media.
“Fundamentals do not support the stock’s rally at all,’’ said Li Yuanrong, managing director of Shenzhen-based venture capital firm 20VC.
DYF’s curious surge adds to a long list of extreme, unexplained stock swings that have threatened to dent Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the world’s premier financial markets. It also shows how, thanks to the growing popularity of passive investment strategies, such episodes increasingly involve global money. Multibillion-dollar funds run by BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and Northern Trust Corp. have all been buyers of DYF’s stock since November, after it became big and liquid enough for inclusion in MSCI Inc. indexes that the funds are required to mimic.
DYF didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. A receptionist at the company’s office in Hong Kong directed Bloomberg to Chairman Sui Guangyi’s assistant, who didn’t reply to emailed questions.
Hong Kong’s stock exchange and the city’s Securities and Futures Commission declined to comment, as did BlackRock, Vanguard and Northern Trust. MSCI said it uses quantitative criteria such as market value, free float, and liquidity when choosing companies for its indexes and doesn’t make judgments about profitability, growth prospects or “any other subjective” metrics.
DYF, which has a market value of HK$31.7 billion ($4 billion), is what’s classified in Hong Kong as a Chapter 21 investment company. Instead of operating their own businesses, Chapter 21 companies take minority stakes in other listed and unlisted firms. They’re similar to closed-end funds and their success depends in large part on the investing prowess of their management teams.
Sui, who is described as a “legendary figure” and “influential scholar” in DYF’s promotional materials, began building a major stake in the company in early 2015, when it was called China Investment Fund Co. After becoming chairman later that year, Sui replaced the management team and has twice changed the company’s name. His stake in DYF, which amounts to about 16 percent of shares outstanding, is now worth more than $600 million.
Sui’s backstory, as detailed in DYF’s promotional materials, is remarkable. Born to a rural family in northeast China in the 1960s, his early career path included stints as an engineer, a “successful multi-millionaire entrepreneur” and a government official. According to DYF, Sui then transitioned into the world of investing: