Keppel fair value seen higher after $1.4b M1 sale

Estimates for 2026 and 2027 were also lowered by 8% to 9%.

Morningstar has lifted its fair value estimate for Keppel Ltd by 3.5% to $8.90 a share, even as it cut the company’s earnings forecasts for the next three years following the planned sale of M1 Limited.

The investment research firm said Monday that it reduced its 2025 earnings-per-share forecast by 20% due to an expected $222m accounting loss from goodwill and intangible asset write-downs tied to the deal. Estimates for 2026 and 2027 were also lowered by 8% to 9%.

Despite the downward revisions, Morningstar’s equity analyst Xavier Lee said the transaction should reduce Keppel’s capital expenditure needs and improve margins, more than offsetting the earnings hit. Shares closed Monday at $8.58, or 96% of Morningstar’s fair value estimate, which Lee described as “fairly valued.”

The sale of M1, excluding certain carved-out assets, is valued at $1.4b and is expected to free up $1b in cash for debt repayment or new investments.

A NOTE FROM SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia