Disclaimer: This article is in no way financial advice, nor solicitation to buy or sell shares in this company. It is purely for educational purposes only. You are highly recommended to conduct all necessary due diligence and make your own informed decisions before making any financial decisions. The writer did not shares in this company and may at any point in time increase or reduce their position without prior notice. Do not try to copy trade!

One of the best performing large-cap Bursa stocks in 2025 is undoubtedly OSK Holdings Berhad, giving a 10% YTD return in 2025, and 148% 5Y return. Comparing this to the KLCI YTD return -6.42% (5Y return -0.63%), the difference is stark.

Today we are going to dive deep into OSK, the RM4 billion conglomerate in Malaysia. Can OSK still continue to grow and outperform?

The history and evolution of OSK

OSK was founded as a stockbroking company in 1963. In 1982, the current major shareholder of OSK, Ong Leong Huat (with his business partners) acquired OSK for RM2 million.

Before the acquisition, Ong Leong Huat was a senior general manager at another financial institution. He started as a counter clerk and spent 17 years to climb up the corporate ladder.

The 1980s was the beginning of Malaysia’s Asia Tiger years. Naturally, the stockbroking business was a growing and profitable business. All the stockbrokers at that time was a member of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE).

History class fun fact: The KLSE and Singapore Stock Exchange used to be one same stock exchange, but after Singapore left Malaysia, it was separated into two separate stock exchange. However, companies on Singapore Stock Exchange continue to list and trade on Malaysia Stock Exchange, until 1989-90 when Mahatir suddenly ordered all Malaysian companies to stop their Singapore listings for capital control purpose.

In 1985, Malaysia was experiencing commodities shock whereby oil price suddenly crashed from $31/barrel $11/barrel.

At the same time, both the Malaysia and Singapore Stock Exchange shut down for 3 days because of the Pan-El Crisis. Because the stockbroking business run on credit (make money by giving our margin to investors), Ong Leong Huat needed to sell his own assets to help OSK survive the crisis.

In 1991, OSK was listed on KLSE. In 1997, just like many other Chinese Malaysian business, OSK also ventured into property development business via OSK Property, riding the property boom in Malaysia.

But after the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis, 3 major changes were made to Malaysia stock market:

1. Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) issued a Policy Framework for Stockbroking Industry Consolidation because most financial institutions in Malaysia was a mess. The SC basically soft-pressured all the stockbroking firms to consolidate/merge, or be acquired by bigger firms;

2. SC also disallow stockbroking firms to hold irrelevant business, i.e. property development in the business to reduce leverage and governance risk; and

3. KLSE was demutualised (turned from non-profit into for-profit) and turned into Bursa Malaysia Berhad. The members of KLSE, including OSK received shares of Bursa Malaysia in return.

Because of these changes, OSK responded by making 2 big changes to the company business:

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