Singapore Corporate News - 4 Sep 2007

Keppel unit wins $22m Algerian wastewater job

KEPPEL Corporation's environmental technology unit, Keppel Seghers, has secured a $22 million contract to design, build and operate a wastewater treatment and reuse plant for the city of Ain Beida, in Algeria's Oum-El-Bouaghi province.

The contract was awarded by Direction Hydraulique de Wilaya (DHW) Oum-El-Bouaghi.

Keppel Seghers will design the plant and operate it for two years. In addition, it will provide a fully integrated wastewater treatment installation including wastewater pre-treatment, an activated sludge unit, as well as a settling and disinfection unit.

When completed in 2009, the plant will be able to treat 25,260 cu m of wastewater a day, catering to a population of 210,000 people. The treated wastewater will be used for irrigation.

Keppel Seghers' partner for this project is Hydro-Technique, an Algerian civil water works company.

Keppel Seghers is a subsidiary of Keppel Integrated Engineering which is in turn a wholly owned unit of Keppel Corp.

The contract follows another contract Keppel Seghers secured in Algeria in July to design and build a wastewater treatment and reuse plant of similar capacity in Laghouat province and operate it for two years.

Alantac's takeover target JEP clinches deal worth $20m

JEP Precision Engineering - a privately held firm that is the subject of a proposed acquisition by Sesdaq-listed Alantac Technology - has penetrated the oil & gas sector with a deal worth an estimated $20 million over five years. Yesterday, JEP said it has signed an agreement with Aker Kvaerner to provide value-added precision engineering services for the latter's CLIP Riser connectors - a product that joins subsea drilling risers from a drill rig at sea level to the ocean floor.

Aker Kvaerner, a global provider of engineering and construction services, technology products and integrated solutions, has business interests in industries such as oil & gas, power generation and mining and maintains operations in about 30 countries. JEP said the deal will help it to secure a long-term 100 per cent outsourced project from Aker Kvaerner, and it also comes with a five-year renewal option.

JEP said the contract allows it to increase and diversify its customer base, and the company targets a revenue contribution of 15 per cent from the oil & gas segment next year, and 30 per cent in 2009.

JEP is the subject of a proposed acquisition of an 85 per cent stake by precision parts maker Alantac Technology for $23.8 million. Alantac specialises in consignment and turnkey projects for customers in the semiconductor and hard disk drive industries. For the half-year ended June 30, 2007, Alantac reported a net loss of $2.9 million, even though sales rose 16.9 per cent to $13.6 million. This resulted from significantly higher expenses incurred during the period.

Mapletree fund acquires 2 industrial properties

MAPLETREE Industrial Fund Ltd is acquiring a factory building in Tech Park Crescent for $12.48 million, and has also bought a light industrial building at 19 Tai Seng Drive for $12.5 million.

In a statement, the company said it has signed a sale-and-leaseback agreement with Centillion Environment and Recycling for the three-storey Teck Park property.

The factory has a gross floor area of about 9,800 square metres and is located within the Tuas Industrial Estate, which houses a wide range of industries from bio-medical to food, manufacturing and warehousing industries.

Separately, the fund also bought a six-storey light industrial building, with a gross floor area of about 8,600 square metres. Located in Tai Seng Industrial Estate, the building currently serves various functions such as a telephone exchange, mobile telephone switching centre and international gateway network management centre. StarHub is taking out a long lease on the property, the statement added.

Both properties will be managed by Mapletree Industrial Fund Management (MIFM) - a wholly owned subsidiary of Mapletree Investments.

ST Aerospace in pilot training venture

SINGAPORE Technologies Aerospace Ltd (ST Aerospace), the aerospace arm of listed Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) which is already the world's largest independent maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) player, is now going into pilot training.

The company yesterday announced that it has signed a joint venture agreement with Aviation Training Academy (Singapore) Pte Ltd (Atas) to set up a commercial pilot training academy in Singapore.

The Singapore-based joint venture company, known as ST Aviation Training Academy Pte Ltd (Stata), will be 70 per cent owned by ST Aerospace, and Atas the rest. Stata will have a total investment of US$5.2 million.

ST Engineering said the investment would not have any material impact on its consolidated net tangible assets per share and earnings per share for the current financial year.

Stata will be operated and managed by ST Aero as a part of its global network, drawing on its aircraft engineering and military pilot training expertise and Atas' airline management and commercial pilot training experience.

The academy will start its ab initio flying training in Australia in October this year, and start the synthetic centric flight training at its Seletar Airport facility in Singapore by early 2009. It will initially provide traditional pilot training under the existing Commercial Pilot Licence and Air Transport Pilot Licence curricula, and eventually include a Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL) programme upon endorsements from relevant airworthiness authorities.

The MPL programme offers advances in teaching methodologies and simulation technologies in a multi-crew cooperation environment over the traditional pilot training programme, enabling pilots to be trained in half the time required compared with traditional training.