19 August 2025

Ranhill Utilities (RAHH MK)
Well Suited For a Long-Term Play; Stay BUY

Buy (Maintained)

  • Target Price (Return): MYR1.70 (+22%)
  • Price (Market Cap): MYR1.39 (USD427m)
  • ESG score: 3.2 (out of 4)
  • Avg Daily Turnover (MYR/USD): 1.56m/0.37m

Analyst

Adam Bin Mohamed Rahim
+603 2302 8101
adam.mohamed.rahim@rhbgroup.com

Share Performance (%)

YTD 1m 3m 6m 12m
Absolute (8.6) 3.0 11.2 4.5 (2.1)
Relative (5.1) (0.9) 10.4 4.5 0.3
52-wk Price low/high (MYR) 1.14 – 1.54

Ranhill Utilities (RAHH MK)

Placeholder for Price Close / Relative to FBM KLCI (RHS) Chart
No images allowed.

Source: Bloomberg

  • Maintain BUY and MYR1.70 TP, 22% upside with c.1% FY26 (Jun) yield. Ranhill Utilities recorded an 18MFY25 (Jun) core loss of MYR70m vs our and Street 18-month FY25 projections of MYR55m and MYR66m in net profit. The core loss was mainly derived after excluding the government grant RAHH received in 6QCY25 worth MYR159.7m, amongst others. We continue to believe data centre (DC)-driven demand for water should bolster its long-term profitability, in addition to the recently announced water tariff hikes.
  • For 6QFY25 (or 2QCY25), the PAT for the water segment increased by 34% YoY vs 2QCY24 due to higher water revenue from subsidiary Ranhill SAJ, if the government grant is considered to have been offset against higher lease rental in relation to Operating Period 5. Meanwhile, the consultancy and services segment recorded a net loss of MYR31.7m for 6QFY25 (2QCY24: net loss of MYR6.8m) due to cost overruns related to certain projects. The power segment booked a net loss of MYR3.9m in 6QFY25 vs a MYR22.9m PAT in 2QCY24 – this was due to maintenance and finance costs related to Ranhill Sabah Energy I and Ranhill Sabah Energy II, which offset the energy payment revenue and finance income from both power plants.
  • We envision Johor’s water demand to be strong in the coming years, backed by industrial investments like DCs and manufacturing plants that could be part of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Special Economic Zone. According to DC Byte’s Market Spotlight Report released in July, Johor has a live DC IT capacity of 487MW. Meanwhile, DCs with 324MW are now under construction, followed by another 1,473MW that is committed capacity. We envisage 300MW in additional DC capacity coming online annually over the next six years. Our estimates indicate that DC water consumption would be roughly 8-15% of non-domestic water usage, in the next three years.
  • A catalyst for RAHH could be the National Non-Revenue Water Programme, which could be implemented over 2025-2030, with a MYR2.5bn allocation. RAHH may benefit from this via its subsidiary Ranhill Technologies (under the consultancy and services arm), which has clinched water projects beyond Johor – namely the MYR61.5m job to replace old pipes in Kelantan covering a total length of 103km, which was secured in Mar 2022. For 18MFY25, RAHH has not secured new jobs under its services arm.
  • Earnings estimates. Although RAHH recorded a loss for 18MFY25, we view our estimates for FY26 and FY27 to have already well imputed the recent water tariff hike. We also introduce FY28 projections in this report, which pencils in 4% YoY water consumption growth. Hence, we make no change to our earnings estimates. Our unchanged SOP-derived TP of MYR1.70 bakes in a 4% ESG premium, due to RAHH’s ESG score of 3.2 out of 4 (median: 3).

Forecasts and Valuation

Jun-25 Jun-26F Jun-27F Jun-28F
Total turnover (MYRm) 3,292 2,602 2,745 3,034
Recurring net profit (MYRm) (70) 52 60 67
Recurring net profit growth (%) (317.3) 16.5 10.4
Recurring P/E (x) na 34.53 29.63 26.85
P/B (x) 2.3 2.2 2.2 2.1
P/CF (x) 4.65 10.29 11.79 7.10
Dividend Yield (%) 0.2 1.1 1.1 1.1
EV/EBITDA (x) 3.77 4.10 3.72 3.20
Return on average equity (%) 9.7 6.5 7.4 8.0
Net debt to equity (%) 49.4 51.1 45.2 35.2

Overall ESG Score: 3.2 (out of 4)

E Score: 3.3 (EXCELLENT)
S Score: 3.0 (GOOD)
G Score: 3.0 (GOOD)

Please refer to the ESG analysis on the next page

Note: Small cap stocks are defined as companies with a market capitalization of less than USD0.5bn.

Source: Company data, RHB

See important disclosures at the end of this report