Recently, the share price of Keppel Ltd finally roared back to life after being in a limbo for the past 2 years. From its share price of S$6.87 per share as at beginning of January 2025, it has now hit an improved market valuation of S$7.74 per share as at 11 July 2025. This is an impressive 12.7% capital appreciation in 2025 alone for all retail investors. Congrats to all fellow shareholders who are holding on to Keppel Ltd and have subscribed to the revised asset light model strategy which focuses now on building up recurring income from management of investment assets. For myself, Keppel Ltd has been my best performing non-banking stock with a total gain of +S$22K (including S$6.2K of dividends) which is a +27.8% return. I had been accumulating shares of Keppel Ltd from May 2023 to November 2024. I have listed below the reasons for the sudden rise in the market price of Keppel Ltd.
1. The Piyush Gupta Effect
Personally, I think that this is the main catalyst for the recent spike in the share price of Keppel Ltd. Once Keppel Ltd announced the appointment of the ex-CEO of DBS as its deputy Chairman and non-executive independent director, the market became mad with excitement. Piyush has a stellar strong track record in transforming DBS into a leading digital bank in Singapore. His experience in driving digital transformation and innovation, as well as his leadership in navigating complex business environments, is seen as a valuable asset for Keppel as it reinvents itself as a global asset manager.
Strangely enough, the share price of Keppel Ltd seems to have suddenly been re-rated by analysts and the entire market by this single announcement and the share price started soaring. Other supplementary reasons for its rise from the ash are as per below:
2. Strong Financial Results
Keppel Ltd Q1 2025 net profit rose 25% year-over-year, driven by stable infrastructure earnings and a 9% increase in asset management fees-S$96 Mil. FY 2024 profit (excluding offshore & marine) increased by 5%, with data-center margins up ~45% thanks to AI and digital infrastructure tailwinds.
3. Robust Asset Monetisation
Since FY2023, the monetisation of non-core assets has been substantial: S$347 Mil in Q1 2025 alone and S$4.8 billion cumulatively since 2020. Analysts estimate another upcoming S$550 Mil asset sale pipeline in India and Singapore.
4. Recurring Revenue and Asset Manager Pivot
Keppel’s Vision 2030 strategy has rebalanced earnings towards recurring income—from 60% in 2022 to over 80% in Q1 2025 from infrastructure, fees, and data centers.
Its commitment to manage S$200 Billion AUM by 2030 is advancing, with S$88 Billion reported end-2024, and another S$4.9 Billion raised in Q1 2025.
5. Strategic Partnerships & Capital Inflows
Keppel has secured S$2 Billion in institutional investments for data centres, education, and sustainable urban renewal funds. It has also recently partnered with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (“AIIB”) for a S$1.5 Billion green-infra investment program across Asia.
Parting Thoughts- Personal Views on Keppel’s Outlook.
Based on its historical annual dividends of S$ 0.34 per share and its market price of S$7.74 per share as at 11 June 2025, this is an annualized dividend yield of 4.39%. For myself as a dividend investor, this is still somewhat attractive to me taking into account Keppel’s target to grow its asset under management to S$200 Billion by 2030 and I will be holding on to my remaining shares. Saying that, from a risk management perspective, I will not be adding on to my current investment into Keppel Ltd as it already made up close to 10% of my gross portfolio value and I have in fact sold off part of my holdings last month to take some profit off the table. Hopefully, Mr Gupta will be able to put in some of his magic into enhancing further growth opportunity for Keppel Ltd for all investors. Let’s wait and see! :)
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