At that point, no one would have dared to imagine a recovery, much less a turnaround, would have even been possible. But that was then and this is now. Today, Keppel, or New Keppel, as CEO Loh Chin Hua likes to call it, has risen from its ashes.
For one, Keppel’s share price is no longer in the doldrums. In 2025, the company’s total shareholder return was 58.5%, more than double the 28.8% one could have gotten from investing in the flagship Straits Times Index. More importantly, Keppel has merged the legacy offshore and marine business with Sembcorp Marine to form Seatrium. This frees the company to pivot to an asset-light strategy of managing rather than owning heavy assets. Keppel is slowly working through its vast landbank in China. Elsewhere, when it makes sense, it can steadily sell its other properties and data centres to the commercial property-focused Keppel REIT and data centre-focused Keppel DC REIT. The transformation of Keppel has been nothing short of a rebirth.
While it is fashionable for companies to dub themselves asset managers and tout growing funds under management, Keppel has been playing up its key strength: it is both an operator and a capital manager. Case in point: Keppel’s Bifrost subsea cable system, an essential link to the international digital infrastructure, is one where Keppel can earn leasing income and also generate long-term maintenance fees.
That said, investors looking to cash in on their shares may want to think again, because there may still be some juice left in the New Keppel story, especially after the company’s FY2025 results announcement, which triggered a wave of higher target prices from already bullish analysts.
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In a note published on Feb 6, UOB Kay Hian analyst Adrian Loh raised his target price for Keppel to $13.23 from $11.70. Loh says Keppel’s return on equity has “improved meaningfully” by 3.8 percentage points to 18.7%. This, he adds, is a reflection of the company’s “improved capital efficiency and continued successful execution of its asset-light strategy.”
Loh’s revised target price of $13.23 is based on a P/E multiple of 18 times. The multiple applies a 25% discount to the valuations of Keppel’s global asset management peers, whom Loh says can enjoy the benefits of scale, a wider geographical reach, deeper liquidity, and a longer track record.
Loh isn’t the only analyst bullish on Keppel. Paul Chew of PhillipCapital raised his target price from $12.20 to $13.80; OCBC Group Research’s Chu Peng raised hers from $11.90 to $13.60. CGS International’s Lim Siew Khee and Meghana Kande, meanwhile, raised their target price for Keppel to $13.52 from $12.71 in their Feb 6 note on the company. Lim and Kande’s target price of $13.52 is based on 18 times FY2027 earnings and non-core assets at book value.
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According to Lim and Kande, Keppel rewards stockholders with dividends. The pair is forecasting a special dividend of between $0.74 and $1.11 based on Keppel’s plan to distribute 10% to 15% of the gross value of monetisation from its $13.5 billion monetisation programme, which will run to 2030.
In his 2026 New Year message to employees, Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua struck a sanguine tone while outlining the company’s trajectory, noting that they are “still early in our growth journey”. The company, since its early shipyard-only days, has undergone numerous reiterations. Judging by what he has already accomplished, it would be best not to bet against Keppel’s new act.
