KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s (TNB) shares rose in the early trade on Monday after the company reaffirmed its commitment to national wellbeing by emphasising customer empowerment, community support and long-term energy resilience at the forefront of its priorities.
At 10.43am, TNB shares added 18 sen to RM13.36, with 2.65 million shares traded.
Last Friday, the energy giant said its strong focus on customer-centric infrastructure serves as a key pillar of TNB’s transformation, reflecting its broader commitment to service excellence and operational reliability.
To enhance the customer experience and strengthen customer empowerment, TNB, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra), introduced the Time-of-Use (ToU) domestic optional product to help households better manage and optimise their monthly electricity bills.
The ToU, introduced for domestic customers on July 1, 2025 has seen more than 70,000 customers migrate to the scheme, while a total of over five million smart meters have been installed.
In a research note today, Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd (HLIB) expects TNB to leverage strong electricity demand, mainly driven by data centre development, given the higher capital expenditure allocation of RM42.8 billion to increase the regulated asset base (RAB) substantially.
“Given the stable coal prices, we do not anticipate significant fluctuations in fuel margin recognition in the financial year of 2025.
“We believe TNB will be a major contender for tenders called by Energy Commission for the extension of expired or soon-to-expire gas-fired power plant Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), as well as for new gas-fired power plant PPAs and upcoming renewable energy projects,” it said.
Hence, HLIB maintains its ‘buy’ call on TNB with an unchanged target price (TP) of RM16.20 per share, as the utility leverages resilient economic growth in 2025 and the expected higher RAB under the new fourth and fifth regulatory periods (RP4-5, 2025-2030).
“We believe the development of data centres in Malaysia will continue to expand, despite recent geopolitical uncertainties,” it said.
Meanwhile, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd said electricity demand from data centre investment should continue to drive higer demand growth, in turn improving operational efficiency and boosting non-regulated earnings.
“Looking ahead, data centres remain a key structural demand driver, supporting efficiency gains at generating companies to strengthen non-regulated earnings. We maintained ‘outperform’ call with a revised TP of RM16.80 per share,” it added. — Bernama
