Piyush Gupta Appointed Keppel Chairman From April 17

Keppel on Feb 5 announced that former DBS chief executive and Temasek India chairman Piyush Gupta will be appointed chairman from April 17.

He will replace Mr Danny Teoh, 70, who will retire after the company’s upcoming annual general meeting on April 17.

Keppel also proposed a special dividend of 13 cents a share, given the group’s strong progress in asset monetisation.

It will comprise two cents in cash per share and one unit in Keppel REIT for every nine shares in the company, equivalent to approximately 11 cents per share, based on Keppel REIT’s closing market price of 98 cents in February.

This comes on top of a proposed final cash dividend of 19 cents per share, to be paid out on May 8.

Including the interim cash dividend of 15 cents per share paid in August and the proposed special dividend of 13 cents per share, Keppel will pay out dividends totalling 47 cents per share for the 2025 financial year, up 38 per cent from the 2024 financial year.

The group on Feb 5 posted a 27.2 per cent rise in net profit from its continuing operations to $645.4 million for the second half ended December, up from $507.5 million a year earlier.

Keppel shares jumped on Feb 5 after the announcements, with the stock up 11 cents, or 1 per cent, to $11.06 as at 9.20am.

Including profit from discontinued operations, Keppel’s total profit for the second half fell to $410.8 million, down 35.4 per cent from $636 million.

For the full year, net profit – excluding non-core portfolio and discontinued operations – rose 39 per cent to $1.1 billion, up from $793 million in the 2024 financial year.

Keppel attributed its 2025 financial year performance to higher profits across all three of its business segments: infrastructure, real estate and connectivity.

Of the three, infrastructure saw the largest share of earnings, bolstered by resilient results in the integrated power business and stronger growth from decarbonisation and sustainability solutions.

Revenue from continuing operations for the second half was $3.3 billion, up 11.8 per cent from a year earlier. For the full year, revenue rose 3.4 per cent to nearly $6 billion.

“Since joining the board last July, Piyush has provided valuable advice in the sharpening and execution of Keppel’s strategy,” Keppel CEO and executive director Loh Chin Hua said in a separate release.

“The board and management look forward to Piyush’s leadership and guidance as we accelerate Keppel’s transformation.”

Mr Gupta, 66, was appointed Keppel’s deputy chairman and non-executive independent director in July. He is currently also a member of Keppel’s nominating, remuneration and board sustainability and safety committees, and will continue to serve on them.

A DBS CEO for 15 years from 2009 until March 2025, the bank’s shares climbed nearly 270 per cent as Mr Gupta led its digital transformation and implemented structural changes.

Outgoing chairman Mr Teoh who led the board for 15 years while the company divested its offshore and marine business. It went from an industrial conglomerate into an “asset-light global asset manager and operator, focused on infrastructure, real estate and connectivity”, Keppel said.

From January 2022 to the end of 2025, Keppel said it also delivered total shareholder returns of 288.9 per cent, compared with the Straits Times Index’s 80.5 per cent returns. The company’s share price also more than tripled during Mr Teoh’s chairmanship, Keppel noted.

The company has raised a cumulative total of about $14.5 billion since its asset monetisation programme began in October 2020. In 2025, transactions amounting to about $1.6 billion in gross monetisation value were completed.

Keppel said it aims to pay out special dividends based on 10 to 15 per cent of the gross value of asset monetisation transactions completed in the financial year, until the company’s monetisation programme is complete.

It added that the company remains focused on optimising the speed of divestment and exit value of assets in its non-core portfolio for divestment, which had a carrying value of $13.5 billion as at end-2025.

The Business Times