Keppel Corp BN4 has reported earnings of $3.6 billion for its 1HFY2023, versus $498 million recorded in the year earlier, as the company booked a gain of $3.3 billion from the sale of its offshore and marine unit. If not, the company’s earnings, excluding the one-offs, would be $445 million, up 3% y-o-y.
Revenue in the same period was up 11% y-o-y to $3.72 billion, with higher contributions from its infrastructure and connectivity segments.
The company is in the midst of shifting its focus to asset management from its old conglomerate business and operations model.
Keppel plans to pay an interim cash dividend of 15 cents, which is the same as that paid for 1HFY2022.
However, Keppel is also planning to give a distribution in specie of one Keppel REIT share, worth 91.5 cents each on July 26, for each 5 Keppel Corp shares held.
As at end-June 2023, Keppel’s AUM reached $65.6 billion, which included about $12.4 billion of real assets on its balance sheet that can be potentially converted into fee-bearing funds under management (FUM) over time. FUM as at the end of June 2023, was about $53.2 billion, which Keppel aims to grow to S$100 billion by 2026, and S$200 billion by 2030.
The AUM targets were unveiled around three months ago as the company wants to become more like a fee-earning asset manager and be less reliant on lumpy earnings from development projects.
Keppel shares ended July 27 at $6.96, down 0.43% for the day.
