By Cecile Lefort
There’s a quiet corner of the ASX that has been going on a tear this year, with investors pumping money into the companies that are building the wires and cables needed for an electric future.
Shares of electrical services companies such as SKS Technologies, Southern Cross Electrical Engineering, and GenusPlus have soared by between 20 per cent and 80 per cent since the start of the year. In contrast, the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index has tumbled 7.5 per cent.
The small-cap stand-outs have also been underpinned by the artificial intelligence revolution and the data centre boom, but this year’s spike in oil prices due to the war in Iran has turbocharged the rally.
With petrol prices soaring to record levels, it’s increased demand for electric vehicles like BYD, with wait times at car dealerships blowing out from two weeks to three months.
“The market is looking at these businesses that have tailwinds as a result of the electrification theme, and the Iran conflict has actually accelerated those tailwinds,” said Shaun Weick, a deputy portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, which oversees around $6 billion in assets.
“Those tailwinds go across the commodity complex, from lithium all the way through the downstream, the actual data centres, the electrical cabling and all things that are required in their build out.”
Small-cap stocks have more broadly been the poorest performers on the sharemarket this year, after a stellar 2025, amid the threat of higher inflation from the war and further interest rate rises, which tend to hit the smaller end of the market the hardest. In contrast, the ASX’s top 20 companies have jumped 6 per cent this year.
Weick said GenusPlus, which focuses on transmission wiring and grid upgrades, was the standout in his portfolio, with the company a potential for inclusion in the S&P/ASX 300 Index, which would then attract a wave of passive money from funds tracking the index.
He also owns maintenance group Tasmea, which now generates about 30 per cent of its earnings from its electrical business, along with infrastructure services providers NRW, and IPD Group, which is doing more work in data centres.
This appetite for infrastructure investment is shared by Jackson Aldridge, a portfolio manager at Regal Funds Management.
While Weick has backed SKS Technologies and Southern Cross Electrical for their exposure to data centres, he has also snapped up a company that many do not yet associate with the electrical boom.
Maas Group is better known for its quarry business, which it sold for $1.7 billion. The company is pivoting toward electrical work and has already secured a contract to help build the modular electrical systems for an AI project called Southgate, which Firmus is overseeing in Tasmania. Year to date, the shares have fallen more than 13 per cent.
“Out of these three stocks, one that is throwing up the biggest opportunity is Maas Group,” Aldridge said. “A lot of people don’t actually look at it as an electrical contractor or provider because it has typically owned quarries and construction materials businesses.”
Adding to the momentum, Pendal’s Patrick Teodorowski, co-portfolio manager of the smaller companies fund, has built positions in GenusPlus, Southern Cross Electrical, IPD Group, NRW and Mayfield.
His strategy is built on three pillars: backing trusted founders, supporting the “rewiring” of the nation to connect renewable energy to the grid, and targeting companies with the technical skills that support data centres and build battery storage.
Teodorowski said Southern Cross Electrical had the most upside given that its role in the nation’s high-tech transition had not yet been fully priced in by the market.
“We thought that the market was significantly undervaluing their exposure to what’s happening across both the build out of new data centre capacity across the country, and their strong capability in very large battery energy storage solutions,” he said.
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