AUSGROUP: Contract for desalination plant brings order book to half a billion SGD
A WEEK ahead of Ausgroup’s 3Q2012 results announcement, investors have good news in the form of contract wins announced by the energy and mineral resources infrastructure solutions provider.
With the latest contract win, AusGroup’s order book is now over half a billion Singapore dollars (A$432 million).
Its stock price climbed a good 6% over the past three days to 36 cents after it successively announced a A$30 million (about S$38 million) contract from Southern Seawater Alliance and work from Woodside.
Southern Seawater Alliance is a consortium of companies commissioned by Western Australia’s government to build a desalination plant.
Known as Binningup Desalination Plant, the desalination plant will deliver 100 gigalitres of potable water per year, or 20% of Perth's requirements, when completed this year.
The scope of work by Ausgroup for Southern Seawater Alliance will cover structural, mechanical and piping installation work of the main facility as well as fabrication of the secondary steelwork.
Separately, AusGroup unit MAS Australasia was also awarded a separable portion of work to support commissioning, start-up and production activities at Woodside’s Pluto LNG Plant.
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TEHO: Inks S$6.4m deal to acquire O&G supplier of heating equipment
RIGGING AND mooring equipment supplier Teho has inked a sale and purchase agreement to acquire a supplier of heating equipment used in Southeast Asia’s offshore oil & gas industry for S$6.4 million.
Known as Finessco Systems Pte Ltd, the acquisition target specializes in supplying, servicing and trading of the following equipment to the marine and offshore oil and gas industries:-
(i) Electric heating and associated control systems and accessories in Singapore
(ii) Marine and offshore oil and gas fire/shut off dampers, storm louvers and galley hoods in Singapore
(iii) Marine water heaters in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China
Finessco is also an exclusive distributor for certain third party brands for the supply of mechanical products and systems mainly to the offshore oil & gas industry in Singapore and the South East Asian region.
Through the acquisition, Teho hopes to extend its capability in the offshore oil and gas industry and expand its client base.
Finessco had an audited profit after tax of S$1.3 million for FY2011 and a NTA of S$1.5 million as at 31 Dec.
Related story: HANKORE, TEHO: Robust 1H2012 Earnings Growth Of 26%, 48%, Respectively
CJ FERTILIZER: Poor weather and inflation hit bottom line
HIT BY a double-whammy of poor weather conditions and inflation, Changjiang Fertilizer has posted a 49.7% year-on-year drop in net profit for 1Q2012 to Rmb 23.3 million.
Revenue decreased 12.0% to Rmb 147.9 million after long periods of frequent rain and low temperature in South China pushed back the spring planting season, leading to a drop in fertilizer demand.
The average selling prices of most products in 1Q2012 decreased as a result.
On the flip side, China’s inflationary pressure on food and agricultural-related products lifted the average selling prices of its nitrogenous fertilizer by 5.1%.
Nitrogenous fertilizer accounts for 69.1% of the Group’s overall revenue, and posted a segment revenue decline of 7.4% to Rmb 102.3 million for 1Q2012.
Gross profit was Rmb 31.1 million, down 44.4%. Gross profit margin declined from 33.3% in 1Q2011 to 21.0% in 1Q2012 as there was a 22.6% rise in prices for its coal feedstock to Rmb 840 per tonne over the year.
CEO Zhu Cheng Bao expects China’s inflation to continue to have an impact on coal prices and the average selling prices of its products this year.
“We will continue to ramp up the utilization of our plants to mitigate the impact of inflation on our gross margins,” he said.
Related story: CJ FERTILIZER Visit: Aggressive Expansion, Strong 1Q, Weak P/E... What Gives?
