THE CONTEXT

In a construction project's lifecycle, the
early-stage players provide the essential earthworks and site preparation required before vertical construction begins.

•  On SGX, there's Reclaims Global. On the HK bourse, there is a Singapore company, Chuan Holdings, offering a similar and overlooked opportunity.

While both companies are riding the same construction upcycle in Singapore, their market valuations tell two different stories.

• Driven by positive investor sentiment and robust analyst coverage, Reclaims Global has seen its stock price re-rated significantly.

In contrast, Chuan Holdings remains a laggard, trading at a steep discount to its peer because Hong Kong investors are pursuing other investing themes and likely less aware of Singapore's construction boom.

• We have more on Chuan below, after the excerpts of an analyst report on Reclaims Global.



earthworks illustrn

Excerpts from Lim & Tan Research
Analysts: Linus Loo & Chan En Jie

We see several imminent re-rating catalysts for Reclaims Global in March’26, which include

(a) a robust 2H ended Jan’26 performance with consensus beating numbers (up more than 50% yoy) driven by faster than expected execution of several quick turnaround and good margined projects and also economies of scale underpinning profit margin expansion;

LinusLooLinus Loo, analyst(b) potential upward revisions in consensus earnings forecasts and target prices post full year earnings release in March’26;

(c) better than expected final dividend payout due to better than expected profitability as well as robust net cash balance sheet and upbeat business outlook;

(d) the upcoming EGM in March’26 to approve the 1 for 1 bonus issue which will help to improve the trading liquidity of the stock while also entitling shareholders who hold onto the bonus shares to higher dividends as the bonus shares will also be entitled to the final dividend payout in April/May’26.


We thus initiate a Buy rating on Reclaims Global with a target price of S$0.60, pegged to 12.2x FY27F P/E (peers average).

Reclaims Global

Share price: 
$0.49

Target: 
$0.60

As an integrated construction service provider providing excavation and demolition services, we believe Reclaims is a beneficiary of the construction upcycle in Singapore over the next few years.

Demand is likely to remain strong with BCA forecasting S$47bln-53bln in construction contracts for 2026, similar to the robust 2025.

Institutional interest in Reclaims have grown in recent months with 31.6mln new and vendor shares transacted between S$0.39 - S$0.41/share.

Mid-longer term we also see potential for special dividends to be dished out once the development project which is expected to be sold in the next 2 years is successfully monetized.



Valuation Gap: The "4.5x vs. 11.6x" Story

Chuan Holdings maintains a massive fleet of over 220 vehicles (example: tipper trucks) and 160 machines (such as excavators), and is benefiting from a boom in HDB and MRT projects.


Chuan’s gross profit margin hit 19.1% in 1HFY25, up from 10.9% in 1HFY24.

Earthworks—their highest-margin segment—contributed 75.2% of revenue.

The group achieved a 10.1% net profit margin in 1HFY25.

For six months ended 30 June 2025:

Segment

Revenue (S$’000)

Gross profit (S$’000)

Gross profit margin

Earthworks
/ancillary services

46,107

9,420

20.4%

General construction works

8,754

363

4.1%

Property investment

6,467

1,921

29.7%

Total

61,328

11,704

19.1%

Source: Chuan results release

Comparing Reclaims Global and Chuan:
• Let's use Lim & Tan's profit forecast for FY26 (ended Jan 2026) of S$6.4 million for Reclaims Global, and we annualise Chuan's 1HFY25 profit of S$6.2 million to get S$12.4 million ....

• The PE ratio of Reclaims works out to be about 11.6X while Chuan's is just 4.5x.


Company

P/E Ratio

P/B Ratio

Market Cap

Net Cash / (Debt)

Chuan Holdings 

4.5x

0.50x

S$58M ($347M HKD)

(S$22.4M)

Reclaims Global

11.6x

1.71x

S$74M

S$26.3M 

Note: Chuan stock price HK$0.275, Reclaims S$0.495

However, Chuan is in a net debt position while Reclaims is net cash after recently raising funds in the market.

 

lamp9.25→ The Lim & Tan report is here

See another S'pore laggard on HKSE: 
Overweight Stocks on Construction Wave, says Broker. One stock is lagging way behind

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