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Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
shipping is the only division in MISC that has a
positive outlook because of the long-term
contracts fixed for 20 to 30 years.
MISC owns the world’s single-largest LNG fleet
of about 27 tankers and would receive two more
tankers costing between US$220mil and US$230mil
each in the current financial year ending March
31, 2009 (FY09).
The company’s oil and gas (O&G) engineering arm,
Malaysian Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE),
would also be able to grow revenue and profit in
the next two years due to contracts it won worth
RM1.17bil from Petronas Carigali.
An analyst with a local research house said the
contracts raised MMHE’s fabrication order book
by 32% to RM4.9bil as at the end of June 2008
from RM3.7bil.
These contracts together with contracts worth
RM328mil in marine conversion and RM306mil in
marine repair jobs would bring the company’s
total order book to RM5.5bil.
As Petronas holds 62.44% equity in MISC, MMHE
should continue to land contracts from the oil
company, the report said.
Also, the reverse takeover of Ramunia by MISC
via the injection of MMHE is set to be completed
by January 31, and would double the fabrication
yard capacity and improve the long-term
prospects of the business.
The offshore and heavy engineering units
combined contributed 18% to MISC’s pre-tax
profit of RM2.6bil in FY08.
However, even though the LNG transportation and
O&G business segments have positive outlooks,
the analyst said MISC’s net profit forecast for
FY09 would still have a marginal reduction to
RM2.04bil compared to RM2.43bil in FY08. |
