Executive Chairman’s Letter to Stakeholders
In this report, our 21st consecutive annual Sustainability Report, we reflect not only upon what YTL Group has accomplished during the year, but upon the responsibility entrusted to us for the generations yet to come. The world continues to confront formidable challenges: geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility, disrupted supply chains, technological upheaval and increasingly visible climatic and ecological pressures. Yet periods of uncertainty also remind us why enduring values matter.
We have once again maintained our inclusion in the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index for YTL Corp, YTL Power International, YTL REIT and Ranhill Utilities. We continue to strive to extend the scope and boundaries of disclosure and improve data integrity for all four pillars of our sustainability framework.
Over seven decades, our journey has been defined not merely by the physical infrastructure we have constructed, but by the enduring moral and social foundations we have laid. True stewardship requires us to recognise that the resources and environmental services we utilise, the people we lead and the communities we serve are entrusted to us for a fleeting moment in history.
As we look toward a future characterised by rapid technological disruption and escalating climate volatility, our philosophy remains simple – Building The Right Thing. To us, sustainability is ultimately an expression of stewardship. The natural resources we utilise, the environment upon which we depend, the people we lead, the capital entrusted to us and the communities in which we operate are not ours without responsibility. We are their stewards for only a brief moment in history. What matters is not merely what we inherit, but what we preserve, improve and ultimately pass on. As the physical limits of our planet are being tested, our strategic focus remains across our four sustainability pillars—Protection of the Environment, Empowering Our People, Embracing the Marketplace and Enriching Communities. Our task is therefore greater than setting ambitions. We must translate conviction into measurable action, investment into lasting value, and technological progress into human flourishing.
From Nation Building to the Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Age
YTL has been privileged to participate in Malaysia’s nation-building journey for more than seven decades. From hospitals, universities and affordable housing to transportation systems, power generation, water infrastructure and the building materials that helped construct modern Malaysia, our history has always been intertwined with the development of the nation. Today, another great infrastructure age is beginning.
Just as rubber became an essential commodity powering the automobile revolution of the twentieth century, computing power is becoming a foundational commodity of the AI age. AI does not exist in the abstract. Behind every model and every digital application lies immense physical infrastructure: semiconductors, data centres, electricity generation, renewable energy, cooling systems, water resources, telecommunications networks and highly skilled human capital. This is where YTL’s capabilities converge. Our experience across YTL Group in power, water, telecommunications, construction, digital infrastructure and renewable energy places us in a distinctive position to help build the foundations upon which Malaysia’s AI economy can flourish. We therefore see our investment in AI infrastructure not simply as another commercial opportunity, but as a continuation of YTL’s long-standing role in nation building. Whilst the technologies and infrastructure change, our purpose remains constant: Building The Right Thing.
We stand at an extraordinary moment in human history. AI may transform civilisation at a scale comparable to electricity, industrialisation and the internet. At the same time, humanity faces serious environmental pressures that demand greater wisdom in how we produce energy, consume resources and develop our cities. Technology alone will not determine whether this future is good, but values will. Innovation without responsibility can magnify human folly. Innovation guided by wisdom, stewardship and moral purpose can become an extraordinary instrument for human flourishing. This is why sustainability cannot merely be an exercise in compliance, reporting or targets. It must be embedded in the character of an organisation.
Environmental Lesson From the Past & YTL’s Strategy
Centuries before the Industrial Revolution, the Columbian Exchange (the massive, historic transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres following Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage) revealed that large-scale human activities could alter Earth’s climate, habitats and ecosystems. The arrival of Europeans in 1492 in the Americas caused a catastrophic 90% population collapse amongst Indigenous peoples due to war and disease. This led to the abandonment of roughly 56 million hectares of managed agricultural land, and in fact, over the 16th and 17th centuries, this massive regrowth absorbed an estimated 7 to 10 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Whilst human tragedy is never a positive model for climate action, this significant reduction in GHG is understood to have measurably lowered global surface temperatures, contributing to a colder period known as the Little Ice Age. Other environmental impacts include effects of the severe dangers of biological homogenisation, how invasive species degrade ecosystems, and the long-term ecological damage of prioritising cash-crop monoculture and deforestation.
Analysis of the Columbian Exchange offers a direct historical playbook for modern corporate sustainability, and one key takeaway from the Columbian Exchange is that the distinction between climate change mitigation and adaptation illustrates that both strategies have complex, intertwining costs, and as such one is not universally superior to the other. Hence, across the Group, we continue to pursue all levers whilst managing short and long-term impacts. We have firmly anchored our operations to our long-term aspiration of achieving carbon neutrality in our operations by 2050.
Moving from ambition to concrete implementation, we are deploying scalable, commercially viable clean energy solutions across our international footprint. In Singapore, YTL PowerSeraya is driving the energy transition by constructing a 600 MW hydrogen-ready Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (“CCGT”), slated for full operation by 2028, which will inherently improve portfolio efficiency and reduce emissions intensity by at least 5%. Complementing this, the successful implementation of the Advanced Turbine Efficiency Package (“ATEP”) at our Taser Power Plant is expected to reduce carbon emissions by up to 11,000 tCO2e annually. Simultaneously, Wessex Water continues to advance its routemap to achieve net-zero operational carbon emissions by 2030 and full decarbonisation by 2040, a full decade ahead of the UK government’s target. In Malaysia, our commitment to renewable generation is materialising through the phased development of a 500 MW solar power facility to co-power the YTL Green Data Center Park in Johor, alongside Ranhill’s 50 MW Large Scale Solar plant in Bidor, Perak which successfully exported 109.2 million kWh of clean energy to the national grid this year. During the year under review, YTL AI Cloud officially achieved NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud status, establishing YTL AI Cloud as one of the first cloud infrastructure providers in Asia to earn this validation, placing it within an elite tier of global hyperscalers and AI-specialised clouds.
Our environmental strategy equally prioritises the circular economy and resource efficiency. MCB has surpassed its 2030 alternative fuel substitution target, achieving a 7.4% substitution rate to meaningfully reduce fossil fuel reliance in clinker production. Across MCB’s operations, we successfully recovered 1.2 million tonnes of waste and industrial by-products via recycling, repurposing and co-processing, diverting these materials from landfills and reintegrating them into the construction value chain. This culture of circularity has been enthusiastically adopted by our workforce through the Beyond 70 BUILDS Recycling Campaign, which collected 105,300 kg of recyclable materials, exceeding its target by 50%. Additionally, as part of MCB’s commitment to viable recovery of all waste, during FY2026, MCB continued to expand electricity generation through waste heat recovery at its cement operations, reducing reliance on grid electricity.
We are also deeply committed to safeguarding the natural ecosystems adjacent to our operations. During the year, the University-Industry Research Consortium, an initiative by MCB, expanded its multidisciplinary research network to undertake a comprehensive study of the Lembah Kinta limestone karst ecosystem, covering biodiversity, geoheritage, archaeology and sustainable resource management. The research aims to deepen understanding of the landscape’s ecological, heritage and resource values, and support a science-based balance between development and conservation. In our hospitality division, Gaya Island Resort continues its pioneering marine conservation work, establishing new mangrove nurseries with a 90% survival rate and successfully rehabilitating sea turtles at our marine centre.
Nurturing Our Greatest Asset – Our People
Our global workforce of 20,815 individuals is the ultimate driver of our business resilience and sustainable value creation. We view human capital not as an operational input, but as our most vital asset. Accordingly, the safety, well-being and professional development of our people are non-negotiable priorities. We are immensely proud that we recorded zero employee and contractor fatalities across our global operations in FY2026. To further strengthen our safety culture, MCB launched a comprehensive Energy Isolation Standard this year to systematically control hazardous energy and prevent injuries.
This year’s historic Beyond 70 celebrations profoundly strengthened our internal community. The inaugural Founders’ Day and the launch of the YTL Museum in Kuala Selangor allowed our teams to reconnect with the values of honesty, hard work and togetherness that define us. In addition to our ongoing employee engagement platform to promote advocacy, awareness and shared best practices across YTL Group, Lunchtime Conversations, we expanded our globally anticipated BTRT Awards to recognise outstanding contributors from YTL’s workforce in Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and the United Kingdom. We also introduced the Gijsen Awards and Challenge to promote sustainable wellness habits specifically for employees aged 55 and above, ensuring that our commitment to employee well-being spans every generation of our workforce.
We are continuously fostering an inclusive, equitable workplace that embraces diversity. We also continue to champion female representation, with women currently making up 26% of our global workforce and 33% of our Board of Directors. To ensure our people remain future-ready, we invest heavily in capacity building across the Group. Our employees have completed more than 380,000 training hours, whilst YTL Construction’s Critical Talent Programme successfully mentored 72 high-potential employees through real business projects and cross-functional collaboration and a new cohort of YTL Scholars brought 34 exceptional students into the YTL family.
Responsible Products and Services
As global markets demand greater accountability and lower-carbon solutions, YTL Group is strategically aligning our product offerings and capital frameworks to lead this transition. Sustainable finance is increasingly central to our growth; this year, YTL PowerSeraya secured SGD500 million in transition financing, a pioneering deal aligned with the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, for our hydrogen-ready CCGT. Similarly, YTL Power International has a RM1.1 billion Islamic green financing facility for Phase 1 of the YTL Green Data Center Park, whilst Wessex Water has GBP900 million in bonds under its refreshed Sustainable Finance Framework to deliver tangible environmental and social benefits.
In our building materials division, MCB is actively shaping a greener construction ecosystem. Responding to the demand for lower embodied-carbon materials, MCB secured independently verified Environmental Product Declarations (“EPDs”) for its ECOConcrete™ and ECOCem® product ranges. These EPDs complement existing eco-labels and provide our clients with the transparent data required to make sustainable material choices and achieve green building certifications.
We are also driving industry-wide capacity building through the Construction Development Lab Academy, which hosted 18 seminars reaching 1,317 industry professionals this year, and expanded our Sustainable Construction Symposium to Singapore to foster regional dialogue on the green transition.
Within our property development arm, we continue to champion heritage-led regeneration and adaptive reuse. By transforming historic assets—such as the former Oriental Bank building into Moxy Kuala Lumpur Chinatown, and Sentul Depot’s historic railway workshops into vibrant community sports and lifestyle destinations—we extend the lifespan of existing structures and significantly reduce demolition waste whilst preserving Malaysia’s cultural identity.
Our commitment to digital democratisation saw the strong growth of Malaysia’s first AI powered digital bank, Ryt Bank. Similarly, YTL Communications commercially launched 5G Advanced nationwide and partnered with YTL AI Labs to introduce ILMUchat, powered by ILMU, Malaysia’s sovereign AI model, to over three million users.
Serving our Communities
Our mandate of Building The Right Thing extends into the heart of the communities where we operate. In FY2026, MCB’s BUILDS initiative reached over 101,000 beneficiaries through a community investment of RM1.8 million, supported by 1,004 dedicated employee volunteers. YTL Foundation remains at the forefront of our efforts to bridge educational divides through our volunteer-powered Leaps Academy, which provided holistic academic and social-emotional training to 695 underserved and displaced children. Recognising the critical role of teachers, we also pioneered a Social Emotional Learning pilot programme for educators to foster more empathetic and resilient classrooms.
We continuously leverage our resources to support local infrastructure and empowerment. In Vietnam, Fico-YTL fully funded and constructed Bridge No. 11 in Tây Ninh Province, completing a vital rural transport network that significantly improves residents’ access to education and agricultural markets. In Malaysia, our Beyond 70 legacy project, Laman Rel Mahkota, was inaugurated by His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, providing a unique community park beneath an operational railway station in Kluang. Across the Group, Founders’ Day 2025 became a powerful demonstration of collective impact, with 400 volunteers dedicating over 5,300 hours to support 2,500 families nationwide.
We also believe in the power of art and culture to inspire environmental advocacy. Through the Penyu Shell-Ter Project, YTL Cement collaborated with 51 Malaysian artists to transform 70 turtle sculptures cast from our ECOCem® cement into unique artworks. The ensuing charity auction of the painted turtles successfully raised RM1 million, with all proceeds donated to the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia and PULIHARA to fund crucial habitat protection and research. In addition, YTL Cement donated RM255,000 on behalf of the 51 artists to non-governmental organisations and charity bodies of their choice.
Concluding Thoughts – Our Purpose
The Garden of Earthly Delights painted by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1490) is a massive visual puzzle representing the moral trajectory of humanity, progressing from the innocence of the Garden of Eden to the seductive sins of earthly life and ultimately the torments of Hell. It is sometimes used as an allegorical framework to analyse the climate crisis, human consumption and ecological imbalance, and warns that unchecked resource exploitation leads to environmental ruin, broadly reflecting the rationale behind the four pillars of the Group’s sustainability framework.
The right-hand panel depicts a dystopian future of destruction, burning landscapes and degraded habitats—a direct warning of what happens if we exhaust our planetary boundaries. The scientific and empirical evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the planet has entered a worrying new phase of climate change, but one which can still be checked and reversed. When the world was gripped by another type of crisis in 2008, the late Queen Elizabeth II, during her annual Christmas broadcast said “When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.”
At YTL, we remain guided by the values that have sustained us throughout our history: honesty, hard work, moral responsibility, togetherness and vitality. As a Christian, I believe that creation ultimately belongs to God and that we are called to be faithful stewards of what has been entrusted to us. Scripture reminds us: “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” — Psalm 24:1. This truth gives stewardship both humility and urgency. We did not create this world. We inherit it for a season. Our responsibility is therefore to build businesses that endure, develop technologies that serve humanity, protect the natural environment upon which life depends, empower our people to fulfil their potential, strengthen the communities in which we operate and leave something better for generations we may never live to see. That is sustainability, stewardship and nation building, and for YTL, that is what Building The Right Thing means.
As we enter the next chapter of our journey, we do so with gratitude for what has gone before, confidence in what lies ahead and determination to ensure that growth and responsibility remain inseparable. May God grant us the wisdom to build wisely, the courage to act responsibly and the humility always to remember that what has been entrusted to us today must be stewarded faithfully for tomorrow.
May God bless you in all your endeavours.
TAN SRI (SIR) YEOH SOCK PING
PSM, KBE
Executive Chairman
YTL Corporation Berhad