Keppel shares up 5.5% on H1 earnings growth and plan to divest S$14.4 billion of non-core assets
Year to date, it is up 25.1% from its closing price on the last trading day of 2024
Shares of Keppel rose on Thursday (Jul 31) morning after the asset manager said H1 net profit grew 24.2 per cent and that it planned to divest a portfolio of non-core assets worth S$14.4 billion.
As at 9.50 am, the counter was trading as high as S$8.63, with some 6.1 million shares changing hands. This was 5.5 per cent or S$0.45 higher than Wednesday’s closing price of S$8.18.
This is S$1.79 or 26.2 per cent higher than its closing price of S$6.84 on the last trading day of 2024.
This comes as Keppel on Thursday posted a 24.2 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to S$377.7 million for H1 amid higher contributions from its real estate segment.
The growth came even as its top line declined 5.2 per cent to S$3.1 billion.
Revenue from the infrastructure segment was down 12 per cent at S$2 billion while revenue from the connectivity segment – which includes data centres and telco M1 – rose 13.9 per cent to S$742.4 million.
The company’s planned divestment portfolio comprises legacy offshore and marine assets, residential landbank, selected property developments and investment properties, and S$2.9 billion of embedded cash and receivables. It also includes hospitality and logistics assets and other non-core investments.
The non-core assets are no longer aligned with Keppel’s asset-light, recurring income-focused strategy, even though many are profitable, such as residential landbanks carried at historical costs.
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