SINGAPORE (Jan 20): Shares in  Keppel Land  (  Financial Dashboard) has been strong recently amid speculation in the market that the company could be taken private by its parent  Keppel Corp  (  Financial Dashboard).

On Jan 20, the stock rose 5 cents on a volume of more than 10 million shares ending the session at $3.65. It is up 6.7% since the start of the year.

Keppel Land&rsquo s shares are now trading at a 20% discount its net asset value at Sept 13 of $4.59 per share.

Some market watchers had previously also attributed the trading activity to a special dividend.

According to a presentation in November, Keppel Land recorded net divestment gains of $1,065.7 million last year.

Keppel Land has a market cap of $5.6 billion ranks and assets of $13.8 billion, making it one of the top five locally listed property companies. Its dividend policy is to pay out one-third of profits.

Singapore accounts for 45% of assets, followed by China with 43.5% and Vietnam with 6%. The Keppel Land group includes Keppel REIT, the largest local office REIT in Singapore, which has assets under management of $8.2 billion.

For the nine months to Sept 2014, Keppel Land reported a net profit of $308 million, down 3.3% y-o-y because of lower contributions from property trading.

In a report issued late last year,  OCBC Investment Research  ascribed a fair value of $4.09 to the stock with a &ldquo buy&rdquo rating.

Keppel Land reports its full year 2014 results on Jan 21.