Singapore, Feb 6, 2026, 15:27 SGT — Regular session
- Keppel shares slipped roughly 0.2% to S$11.60 in afternoon trading, following a 6% surge the previous day
- Thursday’s rally, fueled by a special dividend and upbeat FY2025 results, pushed the stock close to its recent highs
- Attention shifts to the April AGM, upcoming dividend schedule, and the postponed regulatory approval for the M1 sale
Keppel Ltd shares slipped 0.2% to S$11.60 by 3:16 p.m. in Singapore on Friday. Despite the drop, the stock has gained around 6% in the past week and surged roughly 71% over the last 12 months.
After surging 6.1% on Thursday to finish at S$11.62, Keppel took a breather. It led the Straits Times Index winners, which itself nudged up 0.2%.
Investors have zeroed in on the group’s cash-return strategy after it reported a 29% jump in full-year profit from continuing operations, hitting S$1.02 billion ($802 million). It also announced former DBS chief Piyush Gupta will take over as chairman at the April 17 annual meeting. Infrastructure — Keppel’s main profit driver — saw net profit climb 18% to S$803 million. Its connectivity division, which includes the data centre business, expanded 17%. Funds under management grew to S$95 billion, with a target of S$100 billion by the end of 2026.
Keppel announced a final dividend of 19 Singapore cents per share, alongside a special dividend of roughly 13 cents. The special dividend will be partly in cash and partly in an in-specie distribution of Keppel REIT units, meaning shareholders will receive units instead of cash. Together, these bring the total proposed payout for FY2025 to about 47 cents per share. The company expects to pay both dividends on May 8, pending shareholder approval.
At a results briefing, CEO Loh Chin Hua expressed he remains “very confident” that Keppel’s sale of its 83.9% stake in mobile operator M1 to Simba Telecom will close, despite delays tied to regulatory approval. The proposed special dividend is based on 15% of the S$1.6 billion monetisation value completed in FY2025. It would have been larger if the M1 deal — valued at an enterprise value of S$1.43 billion — had gone through, The Business Times reported.
The dividend outlook still depends heavily on asset sales and regulatory approvals. Delays in M1 clearance, weaker power margins, or a sluggish office market could shrink monetisation gains and dampen hopes for new special payouts.
The stock held steady even as the regional market softened. Singapore shares slipped 0.7%, dragged down by a tech-driven selloff across Asia that nudged investors into safer assets.
Keppel’s annual general meeting is set for April 17. The record date for the final and special dividends falls on April 28, with payments scheduled for May 8. Investors will be keenly awaiting any news on the timing of the M1 sale, as it could impact cash returns in 2026.
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