Perdana ‘super clean’ now; will sell all old vessels following RM68mil loss writedown

PETALING JAYA: Perdana Petroleum Bhd,
which is currently bidding for some RM1bil worth of contracts locally,
has completed cleaning up its books, writing down a total of RM68mil in
impairment loss for old vessels over the past two years.
Executive director Datuk Henry Kho said the writedown was part of its clean-up exercise for a clean slate following the boardroom tussle in 2010.
“Over
the past two years, we have been cleaning up our old assets and we have
completed it. Its super clean now,” he said after its AGM yesterday.
Kho said the company would now focus on new vessels, as it would be disposing of the final seven older vessels.
Last week, Perdana announced that it signed a memorandum of agreement with Maimah Marine Pte Ltd to sell the vessels for US$3.48mil.
Perdana needed some RM12mil a year to maintain the older vessels, Kho said.
Overall,
he said by discarding the older vessels, it would be able to save on
the maintenance cost which would flow down to its profit.
“We
have ordered four new work barges of which two would be delivered in the
next two months,” Kho said, adding that the third and fourth vessels
were scheduled for delivery in the first and second quarter of next year
respectively.
Kho said its gearing would go up to 1.2 times
going forward from the current 0.6 times before acquisition of new
vessels, and the company would pare down its borrowings and was not too
concerned as its gearing was “pretty healthy” at this level.
Executive director Soon Fook Kian said it currently had 13 vessels, which would increase to 17 when the four new vessels were delivered.
“The
average age of our vessels is 4.4 years which means they are still very
new. With the new vessels, the average will drop to 3.8 years,” he
said.
On its contracts, Perdana had secured some RM500mil worth
of jobs in the first quarter and was currently bidding for more
contracts in Malaysia.
Commenting on its dividend, he said
Perdana was not committing anything to shareholders at the moment as it
had just cleaned up the company and that cash flow was crucial.
Nevertheless, managing director Capt Surya Hidayat said the company would consider distributing dividends going forward.
The
company expects an improved financial performance this year as it will
take delivery of more vessels and get better charter rates among others.
Currently, some 65% of its vessels are on long-term charter.