Perdana Petroleum allocates RM300m capex

by **Cals** Fri 23 May 2014, 00:17

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Bernama

Thursday, 22 May 2014 16:39

KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): Perdana Petroleum Bhd will allocate some RM300 million in capital expenditure (capex) to build new assets for brownfield production over the next two years, said its Executive Director Datuk Kho Poh Eng.

He said the company was looking to build two to four assets as part of its fleet expansion strategy to tap the high growth opportunities in cyclical upturn in offshore support vessels (OSVs) to secure income visibility and stability.

Speaking to reporters after the company's annual general meeting here today, he said the strategy would allow Perdana Petroleum to be competitive and it was confident this would bear fruit in the years ahead and result in potential market capitalisation growth.

Brownfield OSV, which include work barges and work boats, acts as a floating hotel for offshore personnel as well as floating engineering workshop for maintenance and retrofit services.

Kho said the company currently owns and operates 17 vessels with an average age of 4.5 years, covering both greenfield exploration and brownfield production and maintenance activities.

The fleet, comprising eight anchor handling tug supply vessels, seven work barges and two work boats, will increase to 18 with the delivery of another work barge in the third quarter of this year.

“Out of the 17 vessels, 15 are on long-term charters of two to five years. Our order book to date is about RM1.4 billion up to 2019,” he added.

Kho said the company was expected to perform better this year with more
long-term contracts in place and contracts secured last year that were expected to contribute in full this year.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2013 (FY13), Perdana Petroleum posted a pre-tax profit of RM65.47 million compared with a pre-tax loss of RM2.28 million previously, while revenue rose to RM274.67 million from RM259.54 million.

The company said the improved turnover were attributable to the increase in vessel utilisation and charter rates last year, plus a substantial reduction in vessel operating cost as a result of significant improvement in operation.

Meanwhile, two research companies -- Maybank IB Research and CIMB Research -- had forecast Perdana Petroleum to record a net profit of RM99.7 million and RM90 million respectively for FY14.