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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Lifting of APH receivership boosts Muhibbah chances (STAR)

APH fell into receivership in June this year the project had stalled since 2009 due to lack of funds, by which time Muhibbah had incurred RM370mil in costs.

Oil and gas services provider Muhibbah was awarded an RM820mil project involving marine piling and jetty works in 2007 and had already completed jobs amounting to RM370mil before the project was stalled.

APH itself had used RM840mil from a three-year bridging loan of RM1.4bil offered by CIMB Bank.

According to CIMB Research, a resolution would not be far off; an unidentified group of investors is ready to pump a large investment into APH.

It is believed that the investor group is made up of oil and gas majors, private equity funds and venture capital companies largely from Europe.

With the investment, APH would be able to pay off its banker, CIMB Bank, and Muhibbah.

In its report, UOB Kay Hian said that “if APH is still at a standstill by year-end, the worst-case scenario for Muhibbah is to write-off (the amount) due from APH in their books and register losses for financial year 2011”.

“Consequently, we suspect there could be a cash-call in order to beef up Muhibbah's balance sheet as the company is still actively bidding for various jobs in Malaysia,” it said.

Muhibbah reported a net profit of RM33.8mil last year compared to a RM12.68mil in 2009.

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