Powerwell profile: the switchboard maker behind data centres

Powerwell Holdings Berhad is a Shah Alam manufacturer of the switchboards and switchgear that distribute electricity inside buildings, and since 2024 its biggest customers have been the hyperscale data centres going up in Selangor and Johor.

As of 24 September 2026

• Largest order: RM190.4 million of low-voltage switchgear for a Johor data centre, received 21 September 2026 from a returning global technology company (our report).
• Order book: about RM459 million (RM268.9 million at end-June 2026 plus the September orders), against RM117 million in June 2025.
• Latest results: first quarter to 30 June 2026, revenue RM88.3 million (up 146% on a year earlier), profit attributable RM9.0 million, a record quarter. FY2026 (to 31 March 2026) revenue RM159.0 million, net profit RM24.1 million, both records.
• Capacity: about 143,000 sq ft of production space across two owned factories and one rented in Kota Kemuning, planned output 12,000 cubicles a year; a new Shah Alam plant is expected by FY2028.
• Sites: Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam (headquarters and factories); Taman Ekoperniagaan, Johor Bahru (factory); Tangerang, Indonesia (assembly plant); Kuching (49% of Tenaga Kenari); Vervea, Simpang Ampat, Penang (northern branch).
• Market value: RM691 million at RM1.19 a share on 23 September 2026; largest shareholder United Fam Sdn Bhd with 24.2%.
• Staff: about 250.

What Powerwell makes

Powerwell designs and builds the boxes between the utility supply and the sockets: low-voltage (LV) switchboards, the cabinets of breakers and busbars rated up to 6,000 amps that take power from a transformer and split it to the floors and machines of a building, and medium-voltage (MV) switchgear at 11kV and 33kV. Since 2005 it has been a Siemens technology partner, building Siemens’ SIVACON S8 LV boards and, since 2014, SIMOPRIME MV switchgear under licence to Siemens drawings, with Siemens auditing it every year; it is also an ABB authorised panel builder. Its own Powerwell-brand boards use European components and are ASTA type-tested to IEC 61439, and in 2025 it became, by its own account, the first Malaysian switchboard maker with KEMA seismic-test certification, which matters to data-centre operators who plan for earthquakes. It also builds containerised switchrooms and, through its 51%-owned Firerex and Brandrich, fire-suppression systems.

Customers are the contractors and end-users of anything power-hungry: data centres, semiconductor plants, water treatment works, malls, condominiums, the MRT and the Johor Bahru to Singapore RTS Link. Executive director Soh Wei Wei puts the switchgear content of a data centre at about US$500,000 per megawatt and Malaysia’s pipeline at 3.6GW built or building plus 3 to 4GW in application, a US$3.5 to 4 billion addressable market. Data centres were 56% of revenue in FY2024, and management wants to hold them at 50 to 60% rather than let them dominate.

Where it makes it

The FY2025 annual report lists the property behind the business, all of it freehold:

• No. 1B Jalan Anggerik Mokara 31/48, Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam: a three-storey office block with a three-storey factory, 60,814 sq ft built-up, on Lot 121038 Mukim Klang, bought in January 2007 for the move from Puchong. Net book value RM7.0 million, about RM116 per sq ft of built-up, a fraction of what the site would fetch today.
• No. 4 Jalan Anggerik Mokara 31/44, Kota Kemuning: a three-storey office block with a single-storey factory, 26,999 sq ft, on Lot 69245, bought 20 May 2021 for Powerwell International’s export business. Net book value RM11.7 million, about RM433 per sq ft.
• No. 12 Jalan Ekoperniagaan 1/14, Taman Ekoperniagaan, Johor Bahru: a 14,400 sq ft semi-detached factory on Lot 173426 Mukim Tebrau, bought 9 March 2023 as the southern base. Net book value RM3.0 million, about RM211 per sq ft.
• Four apartments in Pangsapuri Sri Nervillia, Kota Kemuning, used as staff hostels, bought in 2017.
• Rented: a further factory in Kota Kemuning taken in 2026, which lifts total production space to about 143,000 sq ft, and the Tangerang assembly plant in Indonesia, opened in 2023 in the Multiguna Alam Sutera warehouse complex.

The next step is a new plant in Shah Alam, which Apex Securities expects to be running by FY2028 with capacity for about RM500 million of annual output. Powerwell has not yet filed a land purchase or lease for it.

Who owns and runs it

The company began in 1986 as Canwell Engineering Works in Kuala Lumpur, became Powerwell Sdn Bhd in Puchong in 1992, moved to Kota Kemuning in 2006 and listed on the ACE Market on 22 January 2020. Wong Yoke Yen is managing director, Soh Wei Wei executive director and Tang Yuen Kin chairman; co-founder Tham Kien Wai stepped back as managing director and remains a shareholder. In 2024 the founders sold down and United Fam Sdn Bhd, the vehicle of Lao Wai Ieng and Tee Joe Ee, became the largest shareholder with 24.2%; Affin Hwang credits the new shareholders with accelerating the group’s expansion plan. Institutional holders went from about 7% to 15% in 2025, and a transfer to the Main Market is on the agenda.

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The numbers

• FY2022 (Mar): revenue RM80.9 million, loss RM3.0 million, the pandemic trough.
• FY2023: revenue RM159.1 million, profit RM6.8 million.
• FY2024: revenue RM154.8 million, profit RM19.7 million, as data centres became the largest segment.
• FY2025: revenue RM137.5 million, profit RM18.8 million; gross margin 33.2%; Malaysia 98.7% of sales.
• FY2026: revenue RM159.0 million, profit RM24.1 million, both records; Apex counts it as the first year over RM20 million of core profit.
• Q1 FY2027 (Apr to Jun 2026): revenue RM88.3 million, profit RM9.0 million, more than half of the previous full year’s revenue in one quarter.
• Order book: RM117 million (June 2025), RM150.8 million (March 2026), RM268.9 million (June 2026), about RM459 million (September 2026).

The data-centre pivot

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Until 2022 Powerwell’s record job was a semiconductor plant: RM94.1 million of LV panels for Tialoc Malaysia at Kulim Hi-Tech Park, on top of a RM40 million order for the same client earlier that year. The data-centre run began in May 2024 with RM57.6 million of orders and has not paused: Johor Bahru, Indonesia and Selangor jobs through 2024 and 2025, the hyperscale campus at Elmina Business Park in mid-2025, a RM68.4 million Selangor order direct from a global technology company in January 2026, the RM158.8 million Johor contract in June and the RM190.4 million Johor orders in September. Two things stand out. The direct orders from the technology company are the largest, and they repeat. And Powerwell is winning them from Shah Alam, not from a Johor plant, which is why its capacity additions are in Kota Kemuning.

Contract log

Newest first; one line per award, with the filing or report behind it.

• 21 Sep 2026 — RM190.4m, low-voltage switchgear, data centre in Johor, global technology company (repeat). Delivery by March 2028. Bursa · our report
• 15 Jun 2026 — RM158.8m, LV switchboards, data centre in Johor, international contractor. Delivery by March 2027; record at the time. Bursa · The Edge
• 28 Jan 2026 — RM68.4m, design, supply and commissioning of LV switchgear, data centre in Selangor, global technology company. Bursa · The Star
• 11 Nov 2025 — RM9.5m, switchboards, data centre in Selangor, an international construction firm and an M&E contractor. Bursa
• 1 Jul 2025 — RM16.6m, switchboards for the hyperscale data centre at Elmina Business Park, Selangor, four purchase orders from RYBE Engineering, Protech Builders and LFE Engineering. Bursa
• 25 Jun 2025 — RM8.3m, LV switchboards, Indonesian data centre, from PT Duta Listrik Graha Prima. Bursa
• 23 Dec 2024 — RM27.0m, LV switchboards, data centre in Johor Bahru, international contractor. Bursa · The Edge
• Sep 2024 — RM13.3m, data-centre projects in Indonesia, and the RTS Link switchboards (RM9.8m). The Edge
• Aug 2024 — RM14.8m, data centre in Johor Bahru, international contractor. The Edge
• May 2024 — RM57.6m, two data-centre purchase orders in Selangor, the first of the run. The Edge
• 14 Jun 2022 — RM94.1m, LV panels for Tialoc Malaysia’s new building at Kulim Hi-Tech Park, after a RM40m order in March 2022. The Edge

Corporate log

• Sep 2026 — Bonus issue of 116.1 million warrants, one for every five shares, put to an EGM. Bursa
• 19 Aug 2026 — Apex downgrades to Hold at RM1.10 after a 16% rally; 22 Sep 2026, Hold reaffirmed after the RM190.4m orders. TMR
• 30 Jul 2026 — Apex initiates at Buy, RM1.10; data centres 35% of the RM150m order book and 73% of the RM410m tender pipeline. The Edge
• 4 May 2026 — Affin Hwang initiates at Buy, 80 sen; third Kota Kemuning factory rented, 143,000 sq ft. The Star
• 1 Apr 2026 — Completes purchase of 49% of Tenaga Kenari Sdn Bhd and Tenaga Kenari Marketing, Kuching, for RM16.66m, with a RM12m three-year profit guarantee and an option on a further 2%. The Edge
• 2 Apr 2025 — Completes purchase of 51% of Firerex Technology and Brandrich Fire Solutions for RM4.23m. Bursa
• 22 Jan 2020 — Lists on the ACE Market.

What it means for industrial property

• Data-centre demand reaches Shah Alam. The campuses are in Johor and Selangor’s fringe estates, but their switchgear is built in a 40-year-old Kota Kemuning factory that has just taken a third unit and plans a fourth. Every hyperscale phase pulls two to three years of factory space from suppliers like this one.
• Book value versus market. Powerwell carries its 60,814 sq ft Kota Kemuning headquarters at RM7.0 million and its 2021 purchase next door at RM433 per sq ft. Freehold Kota Kemuning factories are among the most sought-after in Klang Valley; the gap between book and market is a hidden reserve on a RM691 million company.
• Watch for the new plant. A land purchase or long lease in Shah Alam or Klang would be the next filing; at RM500 million of output capacity it will be several times the current 143,000 sq ft.

[SCOTT: A line on what freehold detached factories in Kota Kemuning or Section 26 trade and rent for today would anchor the book-versus-market point. And if any of your Penang contacts deal with Powerwell’s Vervea branch, worth noting what it does up north.]

Update log

• 24 Sep 2026 — Profile created after the RM190.4m Johor orders; timeline, fact block and logs to this date.

*Photos: Powerwell company profile 2026 (factory floor); Sam Fong/The Edge (directors); Powerwell website via New Straits Times (lobby). Graphic: industrialandland.com.my.*

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