Stock News: STX Pan Ocean forms new China subsidiary

STX Pan Ocean Co Ltd said it has formed a new China subsidiary, Qingdao STX International Logistics Co Ltd, to strengthen its global shipping network and diversify its revenue base. The new unit will be 100-pct owned by STX through its wholly owned Shanghai unit, STX Pan Ocean (Shanghai) Co Ltd, and will have a registered capital of 8.0 mln yuan. Qingdao STX will operate as a third-party logistics contractor in Qingdao, expanding STX's regional presence and eventually creating a new revenue earning stream for the group, STX said in a statement.

Stock News: Keppel Corp unit wins 13.3 mln sgd waste-to-energy plant supply deal

Keppel Seghers, the environment technology division of Keppel Corp subsidiary Kep. Integrated Engineering, said it has secured a 13.3 mln sgd contract to supply technology and services to a waste-to-energy plant that China Everbright is building in Jiangsu, China. When completed in the third quarter of 2008, the waste-to-energy plant will be able to treat 800 tonnes of municipal waste a day to generate 12 megawatts of electricity.

Stock News: Parkway Holdings announces special div, rights issue

Parkway Holdings said it is distributing a pretax special interim cash dividend of 0.1125 sgd or net 0.09 sgd per ordinary share, and a 1-for-20 rights issue of up to 36.50 mln rights shares priced at 1.80 sgd each. The special dividend is to reward shareholders and provide them with an option to re-invest by subscribing to the rights shares, while allowing Parkway to pass on its tax credits available under Section 44A of the Income tax Act of Singapore to shareholders. "The rights issue has been proposed to strengthen the capital base of Parkway," the group said in a statement.

Stock News: A-Sonic jumps on 139 mln sgd fleet maintenance deal

A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd was sharply higher after it said its unit JANCO Aircraft & Engines Pte Ltd has entered into a seven-year aircraft maintenance management deal valued at about 139 mln sgd with Malaysian Fly Asian Xpress Sdn Bhd. "From a financial perspective, the 139 mln sgd multi-year contract provides recurrent revenue and earnings to the A-Sonic Aerospace group," it said in a statement. A-Sonic rose 0.035 sgd or 14.29 pct to 0.280 on volume of 284,000 shares in early morning trade.

Stock Upgraded: ST Engineering to outperform by CIMB-GK

CIMB-GK Research said it has upgraded its rating on ST Engineering to "outperform" from "neutral" and raised its target price to 3.42 sgd per share from 3.28 after its US unit VT Halter Marine won two contracts worth 214 mln usd. Halter Marine won a 199 mln usd contract with the US Navy to design and build a missile-range instrumentation ship and another with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to design and build a small-waterplane-area twin-hulled coastal mapping vessel for 15 mln. "We believe these contracts will provide earnings visibility and offset concerns over the lack of revenue replacement for the Singapore Navy Frigate contract, which ends in 2007," CIMB-GK Research said in a note to clients. "VT Halter Marine (is poised) to break even in 2006 and turn profitable in 2007," it added. CIMB-GK expects ST Engineering's net profit to steadily improve from 396. 3 mln sgd last year to 427.6 mln this year, 508 mln next year and 575.5 mln in 2008. At 12:20 pm, ST Engineering was up 0.03 sgd or 1.06 pct at 2.87 on volume of 1.72 mln shares.

Stock News: Frontline unit to raise up to 16.1 mln sgd from India IPO

Frontline Technologies Corp Ltd said its unit Accel Frontline Ltd has launched an initial public offering of 5.64 mln shares at a price range of 75-90 rupees per share, equivalent to 2.60-3.10 sgd apiece, in the Indian stock exchanges. The IPO comprises 5.18 mln new shares and 460,283 vendor shares, representing 25.04 pct of Accel Frontline's enlarged capital. The company expects to raise about 13.4 mln-16.1 mln sgd in proceeds from the sale of new shares which Frontline executive chairman Steve Ting said will be used to expand the group's operations in the US and Middle East and to increase its workforce by 25 pct to 5,000 over the next three years. The IPO will close on Oct 5. Frontline said the shares will be listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange but did not say when.

Stock Upgraded: MMI, Seksun, Unisteel by CIMB-GK

CIMB-GK Research says MMI Holdings Ltd, Seksun Corp Ltd and Unisteel Technology are its top picks among the suppliers of components for hard-disk drives (HDDs) that are listed here. The brokerage said the HDD industry was on track to achieve double-digit quarter-on-quarter growth in the third quarter and that it expected these companies to report results that would be catalysts for the price of their stocks. "MMI and Seksun are two prime beneficiaries of expected volume increases from Seagate after the Seagate-Maxtor merger," CIMB-GK said in a note. "Unisteel will gain from the overall industry growth," it said. The brokerage has raised its target price for MMI to 1.36 sgd per share from 1.25 sgd, having increased its estimates of earnings for the company for the financial years ending June 2007 and June 2009 by 3-4 pct. CIMB-GK has raised its target price for Seksun to 0.60 sgd from 0.53 sgd. "Among the HDD component suppliers, we sense that Seksun experienced the strongest quarter-on-quarter expansion, gaining from its major customer's volume growth and possibly market-share gains," the brokerage said. At 3.45 pm, MMI was up 0.01 sgd or 1.02 pct at 0.99 and Seksun up 0.005 sgd or 1.33 pct at 0.38, while Unisteel was down 0.01 sgd or 0.49 pct at 2.04.

Stock News: Luzhou forms 70 mln yuan jv with China's Sichuan Jin Tai

Luzhou Bio-chem Technology Ltd said it has agreed to form a joint venture (jv) company with China's Sichuan Jin Tai Bio-Chem Co Ltd. The venture will have proposed registered capital of 70 mln yuan. Under terms of a deal between the two firm's, Luzhou will take a 51 pct stake in the jv by investing 35.7 mln yuan while Jin Tai will hold the balance with a 34.3 mln yuan investment. The venture will operate a corn sweetener production plant, starting the second quarter of 2007, which will have annual production capacity of 140,000 tons. "The new plant will enable the group to extend its market reach to cover China's south-western region, including Chengdu and Chongqing," Luzhou said in a release. Luzhou currently operates four production facilities in China, with total production capacity of 650,000 tons per annum. This is set to expand to 940, 000 by the second quarter of 2007 with a new facility in Shandong Province and its new plant in Sichuan province.

Stock News: Sunpower Group wins 3.74 mln usd deal from Taiwan's CTCI

Sunpower Group Ltd said it has won a 3.74 mln usd deal to supply pressure vessels to Taiwan-listed CTCI Corporation's unit CTCI Overseas Co Ltd. CTCI Overseas will be installing the vessels in a refinery project of Thailand's Bangchak Petroleum Co. Under the terms of the deal, Sunpower's unit Jiangsu Sunpower Technology Co Ltd is expected to complete the fabrication of the pressure vessels by end-2007 with payment to be on a progress basis.

Stock News: A-Sonic unit wins 139 mln sgd 7-yr deal from Fly Asian Xpress

A-Sonic Aerospace Ltd said its unit JANCO Aircraft & Engines Pte Ltd (JAE) has entered into a seven-year aircraft maintenance management deal valued at about 139 mln sgd with Malaysian Fly Asian Xpress Sdn Bhd (FAX). Under the deal, JAE will provide aircraft maintenance services for FAX's fleet of 12 aircraft. "From a financial perspective, the 139 mln sgd multi-year contract provides recurrent revenue and earnings to the A-Sonic Aerospace group," it said in a statement.