The grid stock the rally forgot
UUE Holdings (0310) — The Next Billion Ringgit Stock?
📊 Stocks in this story · tap for live chart & discussion
Every theme rally leaves someone behind. As the AI-energy trade swept Bursa — rerating anything that touches the grid, from substations to switchgears — , the company that literally drills the tunnels Malaysia’s power cables run through, went… nowhere. Flat for 2026, while its order book quietly hit a record. That gap is the story.
The digger behind the grid
UUE is a horizontal directional drilling (HDD)specialist: it bores under roads and rivers and pulls TNB’s 11kV and 33kV underground cables through, making its own HDPE pipes in-house — vertical integration that protects margin. It earns in two currencies, with a growing Singapore book. The latest quarter showed what that mix can do: 4Q net profit more than doubled year-on-year to RM7.6m, with gross margin expanding to 27.4% on higher Singapore billings.
1 · The order book is the healthiest it has ever been
Outstanding orders stand at a record RM536.4 million— more than the company’s entire market value — after a steady drumbeat of TNB-linked wins. That is over two years of revenue already contracted, with replenishment coming from the same force powering the whole sector: TNB’s multi-year push to upgrade and underground the distribution network.
2 · The AI-energy premium skipped it
Grid contractors became AI stocks in 2026 — data centres need power, power needs cables, and the market rerated the theme aggressively. Direct peer is up ~69% this year. UUE — same customer, same underground niche — is flat, still sitting below its 52-week high. Part of the optics: headline FY2026 profit fell 58% on higher administrative costs, which left a scary ~50× trailing P/E on screens; strip the one-offs and broker estimates put core profit around RM22m — roughly half that multiple, before any growth.
3 · The catalysts
- TNB’s grid supercycle:Malaysia plans roughly RM43 billion of grid investment through 2030 under the energy transition — undergrounding, substations, new feeders. UUE’s bread and butter.
- Data-centre load: every Johor campus needs high-capacity underground feeds — the same theme that rerated the peers, flowing to the drilling layer next.
- Singapore scale-up: management is expanding from two HDD teams toward ten, a potential SGD1.0–1.5m of monthly revenue at better margins.
- Optionality: a push into subsea drilling and electrical systems engineering widens the addressable market beyond distribution cabling.
4 · Risk vs reward: the breakout question
The stock has spent a year building a base: a defended floor at 34.5 sen, a ceiling around the low-60s, and price now mid-range at 52.5 sen. The bull case is simple — a record book plus a theme the market already loves means that above the ~63 sen zone the stock has no history above it: all-time-high territory, where price discovery does the work. The bear case is equally simple: until earnings print through the headline noise, the market keeps paying nothing for the growth.
The bottom line — the billion-ringgit question
With 912 million shares, a RM1 billion market cap is roughly RM1.10 a share — the size of the prize, not a target. Track it beside EI Power on the live heat list — especially if the AI shakeout turns into a rebound.
Sources & further reading
- KLSE Screener — UUE’s RM536m order book offers two-year earnings visibility
- The Edge — 4Q sales jump; annual net profit dragged by higher administrative costs
- The Edge — RM83m of new contracts pushed the order book to a then-record RM416m
- Business Today — UUE still well positioned despite lapse in ASEAN cable works
- The Malaysian Reserve — Malaysia’s ~RM43b grid investment through 2030
- UUE Holdings — company site (HDD & underground utilities engineering)
Ready to act on this?
Compare brokers to trade UUE (0310)Keep reading
💬 Market Chat
Join the discussion — share your take on this with other Rates.my readers.
💬 Discussion (1)
Live · last activity 3w ago
This article is general information, not personalised financial advice. Rates.my is not a licensed financial adviser — always verify rates with the institution and consider your own circumstances.
← All insights