LSH Capital: How Does It Stack Up Against Main Market Construction Peers?

With LSH Capital moving to Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market on 8 October, there is a natural question for investors looking at the construction sector:

Where does LSH actually sit against the established Main Market names?

At its closing price of RM1.75 on 7 October 2026, LSH is now valued at approximately RM1.47 billion.

That still puts it well below the sector heavyweights. Gamuda is worth around RM30.7 billion, IJM around RM10.4 billion and Sunway Construction around RM10.0 billion. Further down the scale, Kerjaya Prospek stands at approximately RM4.42 billion, while Binastra is around RM2.74 billion.

But look in the other direction and the picture becomes more interesting.

LSH’s RM1.47 billion market capitalisation is already above a number of long-established Main Market names within the broader construction and property universe. MRCB is currently around RM1.25 billion, Chin Hin Group Property around RM1.35 billion, WCT around RM538 million, GDB around RM433 million, Mitrajaya around RM350 million, Kimlun around RM330 million and MGB around RM225 million.

So LSH is no longer particularly small by Main Market construction-sector standards.

What makes the comparison more interesting is what sits underneath that RM1.47 billion valuation.

Most investors understand the conventional contractor model. Win jobs, execute projects, recognise progress billings and replenish the order book.

LSH has progressively built something broader.

Today, the Group operates across three core business segments: construction, property development and facilities management. Construction remains the foundation, but the development of property and facilities management alongside it has broadened the Group’s earnings base beyond conventional project contracting.

Of course, diversification itself is not unique.

Gamuda and IJM are the clearest examples of what a construction-led business can eventually become at scale. Both extend well beyond pure contracting into areas such as property and infrastructure. Kerjaya Prospek combines construction with property and manufacturing, while other peers have developed their own adjacent capabilities.

The distinction for LSH is where it is in that journey.

At around RM1.5 billion market capitalisation, LSH already has an integrated construction platform together with property development and a growing facilities-management business.

The latter is anchored by the 20-year Kuala Lumpur Tower concession, which gives the Group a recurring revenue stream that is structurally different from project-based construction income. The Morib Rejuvenation Project is expected to broaden that recurring-income base further through the future operation of the rejuvenated golf course and hotel apartment.

Beyond that, the proposed Bandar Malaysia-Seri Kembangan Expressway introduces another potential avenue for LSH to expand into long-duration infrastructure concession exposure. While the project is still subject to the required studies, negotiations and finalisation of the concession agreement, it points to how LSH’s business could evolve further beyond construction and property alone.

That makes LSH particularly interesting when compared with the smaller and mid-sized end of the Main Market construction universe.

A contractor such as Kimlun or MGB also combines construction with products and property. GDB and Inta Bina are recognised building contractors. WCT combines construction, property and investment assets. Each has its respective strengths.

LSH’s differentiator is the combination: a construction-led platform complemented by property development and an expanding facilities-management and concession component, sitting within a business that is still at a relatively early stage of scale.

There is another useful way of looking at the comparison: valuation.

Based on the 7 October market snapshot, LSH is trading at approximately 15.6x P/E.

That is well above lower-multiple contractor-developers such as Kimlun, MGB and Mitrajaya, which are currently around 4x earnings. But it remains below Kerjaya Prospek at around 17.8x, Sunway Construction at 23.6x and Gamuda at 29.2x, while Binastra is at approximately 16.5x.

That positioning is telling.

The market is not valuing LSH like one of the smaller traditional contractors anymore, but neither has it reached the valuation or scale commanded by the largest established construction groups.

In a sense, LSH currently sits somewhere in between.

And its corporate journey reflects the same thing.

LSH listed on the LEAP Market in July 2021, moved to the ACE Market in March 2025, and will transfer to the Main Market on 8 October 2026. Its market capitalisation has moved from approximately RM46.2 million at its LEAP listing, to around RM737.8 million at the ACE listing, and now approximately RM1.47 billion immediately before the Main Market transfer. This is not a measure of shareholder return, given the changes in the Group and its capital base over the period, but it does show how significantly the scale of the listed company has changed.

The business itself has changed alongside it.

This is why comparing LSH only with the smallest contractor-developers may increasingly become less useful.

At the same time, it would be premature to put LSH in the same category as Gamuda, IJM or Sunway Construction. Those companies have much larger earnings bases, deeper institutional liquidity and considerably longer Main Market track records.

But they provide an important benchmark for where an integrated construction business can ultimately go.

For retail investors looking across Bursa’s construction sector, that leaves LSH with a fairly distinct proposition.

You have the large established names such as Gamuda, IJM and Sunway Construction for scale and track record.

You have execution-focused growth contractors such as Kerjaya Prospek and Binastra.

You have a group of smaller contractor-developers, some of which trade at considerably lower valuations.

And then there is LSH: already around RM1.5 billion in market value, moving rapidly through Bursa’s markets, but still early enough in its growth cycle for its newer earnings engines to become much more meaningful.

That combination gives LSH a credible path to keep moving up the construction-sector curve while developing an earnings profile that is increasingly its own.

As it enters the Main Market, LSH is shaping up as more than a conventional contractor: a construction-led group with property, recurring-income and potential infrastructure-concession exposure, while still retaining meaningful room to scale.

For investors looking at the next layer of growth within Malaysia’s construction sector, that is what makes LSH increasingly relevant.

LSH CAPITAL: FAST-TRACKING TO THE MAIN MARKET, AND THE NUMBERS EXPLAIN WHY

LSH Capital has proposed to transfer its listing from the ACE Market to Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market in the second half of 2026, with the exercise targeted for completion by end-2026, subject to the necessary approvals.

What caught my attention is that LSH is applying through the accelerated transfer process.

In simple terms, this is not a shortcut for just any ACE Market company. It is a faster route reserved for larger companies that have already built the profits, financial strength and track record expected of a Main Market company.

To use this route, a company must have been listed on the ACE Market for at least 12 months, maintain a daily market capitalisation of at least RM1 billion for the preceding six months and meet the Main Market profit requirements. It must also have positive operating cash flow for the past three audited financial years, sufficient working capital, no accumulated losses and clean audited accounts.

LSH did not just meet the profit requirements. It passed them by a wide margin.

For the latest three financial years, LSH recorded total profit after tax of RM238.53 million, compared with the minimum requirement of RM30 million. That is almost eight times the required amount.

For its latest financial year, LSH recorded profit after tax of RM102.09 million, compared with the minimum requirement of RM15 million. That is around 6.8 times the required amount.

Put another way, LSH’s profit for its latest year alone was already more than three times the minimum three-year profit requirement.

Its financial position also appears comfortable. Based on its latest audited figures, LSH had current assets of RM645.42 million against current liabilities of RM179.92 million. This gives a current ratio of around 3.59 times, meaning it had about RM3.59 of short-term assets for every RM1 of short-term liabilities. Its market capitalisation had also remained above the required RM1 billion level since September 2025.

So, what would the transfer actually mean for investors?

One practical difference is that some institutional funds are restricted by their mandates from investing in ACE Market companies. Moving to the Main Market removes that barrier and allows LSH to enter a larger investable universe. It does not guarantee that funds will buy the shares, but it gives the company a better chance of being screened, researched and considered by institutional investors. The accelerated framework itself was introduced to give larger, qualified ACE companies greater access to both local and foreign institutional investors.

Main Market status may also change how investors compare LSH. Instead of being viewed mainly as an emerging ACE Market company, it can increasingly be assessed alongside more established construction and property-related counters based on earnings, order book, cash flow, dividends and valuation. Better market recognition may support stronger price discovery over time, although the company must still continue delivering results.

What makes this move more interesting is the speed of LSH’s progress. The company only transferred from the LEAP Market to the ACE Market in March 2025. Around 16 months later, it is already qualified to apply for the accelerated route to the Main Market.

A Main Market transfer by itself does not suddenly create more profit, and approval is still pending. But qualifying for the accelerated route says something about what LSH has already achieved. The company has built sufficient earnings, size, operating history and financial strength to pass requirements that most ACE Market companies would need time to reach.

This is not an upgrade that is easily achieved. LSH’s numbers earned it the opportunity, which is why this is one counter that may deserve a closer look rather than being viewed as just another ACE Market construction stock.