Company Briefs - 5 Jul 2007

Oculus eyes hydropower plant in move to energy

NEW Oculus executive chairman Mike Lee Kheng Siang plans to turn the former contact lens maker into an energy play, starting with the proposed acquisition of a China hydropower plant.

The plant is expected to bring 80-85 million yuan (S$16-17 million) in revenue each year, Mr Lee told BT.

On June 25, Oculus announced the proposed acquisition of Hunan Zhangjiajie Chalinhe Electric Power - which owns the hydropower plant that is now in the final stages of construction in China's Hunan Province - for 700 million yuan.

Of this, 300 million yuan will go to the vendors of the target plant. This will be funded from internal resources or 'some other resources outside Singapore', said Mr Lee. The other 400 million yuan arises from the existing debt of the target company and the plant's construction costs, both of which Oculus said it will not directly fund.

The proposed acquisition will allow Oculus to retain its Sesdaq listing. In February, Oculus sold its contact lens and eyecare-related business for $5.05 million.

'Oculus is going to be an energy play,' said Mr Lee, who is looking at oil and gas concerns as well. No specific deals are under way.

The plant - now about 90 per cent complete - will have a capacity of 54 megawatts and estimated delivery of 260,000 megawatt-hours a year. The first turbine will start producing power next month, and all three turbines will be in operation by next April. A fourth may later be added, bringing capacity to 72 MW.

The target company has an annually renewable agreement to supply the Hunan Zhangjiajie Electricity Bureau. Revenue flow is hence 'very secure', said Mr Lee, as the plant sells electricity directly to the government power grid.

Mr Lee joined Oculus on June 21. He heads Ariel Singapore, the company behind the 2004 'white knight' rescue of ailing precision engineering firm Ho Wah Genting International - now Global Ariel - and its reverse takeover with Chinese concrete supplier Assetgold Finance.

Ariel has a 24.5 per cent stake in Oculus, whose shares closed 2.5 cents up at 37.5 cents yesterday.

SSH Corp bags three deals worth $37.8m

OILFIELD equipment supplier SSH Corporation - part of Indonesian tycoon Kris Wiluan's oil trio here - has clinched three contracts totalling $37.8 million.

The largest contract worth $29.8 million is for Sime Darby Engineering Malaysia. It covers steel plates needed by the company, which is the EPCCI (engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and installation) contractor for Maersk Oil's Al-Shaheen Block 5, Phase 16 development project. The Qatari offshore project is reported to cost over US$3 billion to develop.

The other two contracts worth about S$4.4 million and S$3.58 million respectively cover supplies of high-tensile steel plates to Jackup Barge NV, Netherlands and steel plates to World Wide Piping, Malaysia. The high-tensile steel plates for Jackup Barge will be used for the construction of a four-legged jack-up rig in Batam. The steel plates for World Wide Piping will be used for the manufacture of welded steel tubulars to be used for the fabrication of a central processing platform for the North Belut project in the Natuna Sea.

Mr Wiluan, who is SSH's chairman and CEO, said: 'The contracts demonstrate the positive results from our integration and are a good start for SSH, whose new financial year commenced on July 1.'

He has indicated that he expects to complete the merger of oilfield equipment suppliers SSH and Aqua Terra Supply with oil rig refurbisher KS Energy by year-end to enable the Singapore trio to bid more effectively for large oil and gas projects overseas.