Sunday 14 September 2008

Vastalux slips 30% on market debut

KUALA LUMPUR: Vastalux Energy Bhd dipped below its initial public offer price (IPO) of 75 sen on its debut on the Bursa Malaysia second board yesterday.

Its share price hit 58 sen at the opening bell with 900 shares transacted and closed at 52.5 sen, down 22.5 sen or 30%.The total volume of the day stood at 5.5 million shares.

Executive director Azman Abd Ghafar said the opening price was expected due to the soft equity market.

“We are confident that our value would be reflected after the market recovers and supported by the company’s good fundamentals,” he said after the listing ceremony.

Vastalux chairman Tan Sri Zainol Abidin Abd Rashid hitting the gong to mark the company listing on the second board. With him are Azman Abd Ghafar and other company directors

He said the company would acquire two or three workboats or workbarges by next year at the cost of RM40mil to RM60mil each.

“We want to grow our revenue contribution from overseas markets to 30% in the next three to five years from about 5% currently,” he said.

Azman said the company would invest RM10mil, that was raised from its IPO, for its business expansion in the next 24 months.

He said the company intended to expand into key growth markets such as the Philippines, the Middle East and North Africa from next year, and India and Myanmar by 2011.

“We are now in Indonesia and Vietnam,” he said.

He said the company was currently bidding for contracts worth RM700mil in the domestic market, of that about 60% was from Petroliam Nasional Bhd and its subsidiaries.

On Vasalux’s public shareholding, he said: “We are confident of fulfilling the requirement within the next six months and are involved in talks with a merchant banker to explore a private or other placement to placees who are deemed public now.”

The company has been given until March 11 to comply with Bursa’s listing requirements of having a minimum 1,000 public shareholders.

It has only 698 public shareholders holding no less than 100 shares each.

DNV to class 10 Nam Cheong offshore support vessels


OSLO: Det Norske Veritas has signed a contract with Nam Cheong Dockyard Sdn Bhd in Malaysia to class 10 new offshore support vessels (OSV) and provide Certification of Materials and Components for the Rolls Royce UT755LN and UT755CD design vessels due for completion by 2011.


The agreement resulted from Nam Cheong’s decision to partner a classification society that can ensure the OSVs will be fit and acceptable for any trade in any part of the world. Valued at €200 million (US$290 million), these vessels will either be put into trade by the yard’s own management company or sold on the spot market.


“Within the shipping industry in Southeast Asia, DNV sees a trend towards the high-end offshore market,” says Knut Ording, Country Manager for DNV Maritime in Malaysia. “We also observe that companies in this region are keen to work with DNV for the added value we can provide, based on our vast experience in offshore markets such as the North Sea. In this regard, DNV is delighted to team up with Nam Cheong Dockyard, a quality shipbuilder with over 40 years of success.”

Says Nam Cheong executive director Leong Seng Keat, “As a class society reputed for innovation and high work standards, DNV understands our requirements for the strictest reliability in all the vessels built by us. We are very confident that DNV can fulfil our expectations for the 10 OSVs to perform optimally in the toughest conditions.”

Construction of the Nam Cheong OSVs will begin in the first quarter of 2009, with the completion due in mid-2011. DNV’s classification of these newbuildings will include plan approval of design drawings and onsite follow-up. The Norwegian class society will also provide the Certification of Materials and Components to be installed onboard.

The project comprises two UT755LN vessels with Dynamic Positioning II (DP II) notation and eight UT755CD vessels with Dynamic Positioning I (DP I) notation. The UT755CD vessels will also have DNV’s high environmental performance Clean Design notation and NAUT-OSV bridge design notation.

DNV’s NAUT notations, in particular, have been proven to significantly reduce the risk of collisions and groundings by optimising the design and layout of bridge equipment and the volume of information to be handled by bridge personnel during different operational situations.
Sustained growth in the market has led to a current OSV order book of over 600 vessels globally and DNV is supporting the growing demand for such high specification vessels through industry collaborations that have contributed innovative solutions such as the X-bow. More than 300 new OSVs have been contracted to DNV class over the past two years, half of which will also have the DNV Clean Design notation.

05 September 2008