YTL Power International Bhd

It is YTL Power International Bhd’s (KL:YTLPOWR) second consecutive year on The Edge Billion Ringgit Club (BRC) corporate awards winners list, supported by back-to-back record high annual profits in 2023 and 2024 from resilient overseas operations in both the water and power sectors.

The multi-utilities arm of the YTL Group, which marked its 70th anniversary this year, posted the highest returns to shareholders in the utilities sector and among big-cap companies with market capitalisations between RM10 billion and RM40 billion. It won trophies in the same two categories last year.

That should come as no surprise. YTL Power’s share price rose more than fivefold during the evaluation period for The Edge BRC Awards — from 58.4 sen on March 31, 2022 to RM3.33 on March 28, 2025 — reflecting an average annual return of 78.65% over the three-year period evaluated for this year’s awards.

The share price gains came as YTL Power returned to the black with new record high earnings two years in a row, from an adjusted net profit of RM1.48 billion in the financial year ended June 30, 2022 (FY2022) to RM2.03 billion in FY2023 and RM3.4 billion in FY2024. Its biggest earnings contributors — the Singapore power business and the water operations in the UK — also helped to deliver a RM2.4 billion (unaudited) net profit for FY2025.

Right now, YTL Power’s core profit generators are its 3,100mw power generation capacity in Singapore and its water services firm Wessex Water, which serves 2.9 million customers in southwest England.

Things are brewing at home, too. As it makes an operational comeback in Malaysia, YTL Power’s presence along the traditional water, power and telecommunications sectors supply chain is now becoming more sophisticated. Apart from domestic demand, it is also supporting its fast-growing physical and digital infrastructure in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption.

First, YTL Power is re-emerging as an independent power producer (IPP) after a four-year hiatus, following its 100mw solar farm project win under Malaysia’s Fifth Large Scale Solar bidding round. Its track record as the nation’s first IPP makes it a strong contender in the recently concluded request for proposal (RFP) for new gas-fired power plants in Peninsular Malaysia.

The power venture would add to the portfolio under YTL Power’s majority-owned Ranhill Utilities Bhd (KL:RANHILL), comprising an existing solar capacity of 50mw, plus another 480mw of gas power generation capacity in operation and under construction in Sabah.

While Ranhill’s medium-term earnings forecasts appear muted, the exclusive source-to-tap water supply operator in Johor is set to see further long-term earnings resilience from the state’s recent water tariff adjustment and upcoming water industry revamp at a time supply reliability is crucial to support rapid growth in data centre (DC) industry water demand.

YTL Power is also in the DC space itself, with the high-value proposition of artificial intelligence (AI) computing capabilities through primary access to Nvidia Corp’s latest high-performance chips.

Apart from its colocation DC in Johor — targeted to reach an operating capacity of 92mw this year and an additional 58mw next year — the first phase of its 20mw AI computational DC has come online. Over 50% of this computing capacity has already been contracted for use by a multinational hyperscaler or large-scale cloud provider by year-end. The remaining capacity is being used to deploy its proprietary large language model (LLM), ILMU, which is trained on local data and powers the AI assistant for Ryt Bank, the digital banking platform led by YTL Digital and Singapore’s SEA Ltd. The DC campus is designed to scale further as demand grows.

Similarly, its telco business is seeing heightened activities in the infrastructure space. In April, its 60%-owned YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, which operates YES 5G mobile network, was appointed to develop fibre optic infrastructure along 1,600km of railway track from Perlis to Johor and Kelantan — which will serve as the backbone to the national digital economy, in line with the National Broadband Plan and the National Digital Network (Jendela).

Prior to that, in February, YTL Communications entered into a joint venture with Bullish Aim Group — chaired by the acting Sultan of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim — to develop a fibre network across major townships in Johor, including underserved areas.

Overall, investors are closely watching the business model YTL Power will implement in its AI venture, reportedly valued at RM10 billion to-date. Similarly, the fluid 5G operating landscape has prompted investors to monitor the company’s telecommunications sector investments, including the status of its stake in Malaysia’s first 5G infrastructure operator Digital Nasional Bhd.

Despite all the moving parts, YTL Power’s proven track record — both domestically and abroad — alongside Malaysia’s push for energy reliability and its pivot into digital infrastructure and services, could set the stage for the group’s resurgence in Corporate Malaysia in the years ahead.