Singapore’s Keppel logged a 29% rise in full-year profit on Thursday, supported by improved performance across its three segments and higher recurring income, and appointed Piyush Gupta as its new chairman.
Gupta, currently the deputy chair and ex-DBS CEO, will be appointed as non-executive chairman at the company’s annual general meeting on April 17.
On that same day, Danny Teoh will retire as chairman after having served as Keppel’s director for more than 15 years, with five years as chair.
Separately, the over-half-a-century-old asset manager’s profit from continuing operations rose to S$1.02 billion ($801.76 million) for the year ended December 31, from S$787 million a year earlier.
The firm declared a final dividend of 19 Singapore cents per share, unchanged from the year-ago period.
Keppel also declared a special dividend of 13 Singapore cents from proceeds unlocked from asset monetisation, with divestments of S$2.9 billion in 2025.
Keppel’s infrastructure arm, which contributed the most to the company’s profits, saw its annual net profit rise 18% to S$803 million, aided by resilient results in the integrated power business, despite softening spark spreads and stronger growth from decarbonisation and sustainability solutions.
Meanwhile, the connectivity division, which operates its data centre business and has benefitted from the rising demand for AI and digital infrastructure, reported a 17% rise in annual net profit.
During the year, Keppel benefitted from increasing digitalisation and the AI wave, with new power generation capacity and an expanding data centre powerbank in Asia Pacific, said Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua.
The company’s funds under management grew to S$95 billion at the end of 2025, from S$88 billion a year ago, on track to achieve its FUM target of S$100 billion by the end of 2026.
Shares of the company rose as much as 3.3% to a record high level of S$11.31 in early trading, while the broader benchmark was down 0.2%.
($1 = 1.2722 Singapore dollars)
Reuters
