Icing on cake for Keppel’s many reboots in recent years

IF 2022 was deemed a “transformational and productive” year for Keppel Corp (in the company’s own words), then 2023 could well be the same. That reveals a lot about the giant firm’s change resolve in a landscape that has altered so much in recent years, chiefly in the offshore and energy fronts.

Keppel’s latest endeavour, unveiled earlier this month, involves ditching its long-held conglomerate status – and in doing so, escaping the “conglomerate discount” that dogs such stocks – to become a “differentiated global alternative real asset manager and operator”.

While quite a mouthful, the new descriptor, in essence, means that the multi-decades-old Keppel is recasting itself as an asset manager and operator by integrating its array of sizeable businesses in real estate, data centres, infrastructure and connectivity.