Singapore Corporate News - 30 Nov 2007

SembMarine pays $29m for India shipyard stake

SEMBCORP Marine, the world's second largest builder of offshore oil rigs, is buying a 3.31 per cent stake in an Indian shipyard for $29.12 million.

This will be its first investment in India, one of the world's fastest growing economies, and is seen as an investment in the country's future.

SembCorp Marine, which was in the news recently over a scandal involving its finance head and which could lead to huge foreign-exchange losses, said yesterday that it has signed an investment agreement with Pipavav Shipyard Ltd (PSL) and its promoters, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, to subscribe for 17.5 million shares in PSL at 45 rupees apiece.

Located within the vicinity of Pipavav Port, Gujarat in India, PSL is strategically located on the west coast of India along the Middle East-Singapore sea route.

The 85-hectare shipyard is poised to be one of the largest shipbuilding yards in India.

The shipyard to-date has secured contracts worth a total of US$1 billion for the construction of 22 panamax-sized ships with options for an additional four vessels.

Currently, the shipyard infrastructure is under development and construction and is scheduled for completion in September 2008.

This comprised a 600-metre long VLCC drydock equipped with shipbuilding workshop facilities and equipment.

The shipyard infrastructure is geared towards the building of large vessels up to VLCC size in the future.

Raffles Medical Q3 earnings soar 60.5% to $6.55m

BESIDES record revenue for the third quarter, Raffles Medical Group saw its net profit for the three months ended Sept 30 surge 60.5 per cent from a year ago to $6.55 million.

Group revenue hit $43.84 million, up from $35.02 million, with broad-based growth across its healthcare and hospital services divisions.

The strong local economy and the growth in the region have benefited its healthcare services segment, which grew 12.1 per cent with improving margins from both RafflesMedical network of family clinics and International Medical Insurers (IMI) as more companies invest in corporate healthcare needs of their staff, it said.

Its hospital arm, Raffles Hospital, achieved a 35.7 per cent Q3 growth, with strong demand from local and international patients.

The group completed its acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent in CapitaLand-Raffles Properties Pte Ltd, which owns the Raffles Hospital building, in September.

For the first nine months of this year, the group more than doubled its net profit to $26.42 million from $10.77 million as revenue rose 24.5 per cent to $122.92 million. It expects to continue to perform well for the rest of this year.

In Singapore, RafflesHospital can look forward to collaborations with Pfizer in therapeutic research areas. Pfizer has set up Singapore's biggest clinical research unit at RafflesHospital costing $67 million.

RafflesMedical will also start a new 24-hour comprehensive multi-disciplinary medical centre at Terminal 3 of the Changi International Airport in January next year, in addition to its exclusive medical centres at Terminal 1 and 2 and the Cargo Complex.