BH Global Marine Ltd (明輝環球海事), Singapore’s largest integrated marine electrical supplier, is planning to issue 30 million units of Taiwan Depository Receipts (TDR) late next month to raise capital for business expansion.
The listing price has been tentatively set at NT$15 to raise NT$450 million (US$14.3 million), the company said.
BH Global’s stock closed at S$0.345 in Singapore yesterday.
The company received approvals from the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the central bank for the TDR offering, according to a filing with the Singapore Exchange on Sept. 7.
BH Global Marine has been in the marine and offshore electrical business for more than 40 years. Listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2005, the company specializes in marine electrical supplies, custom design and the manufacture of marine switchboards and provision of turnkey engineering solutions.
In the first quarter, BH Global saw net profit decline 12 percent to S$3.01 million from a year earlier.
“Due to the nature of the marine business, we expect BH Global’s profit to lag and will gradually see improvement over the next few quarters,” underwriter Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券) said in a statement.
The brokerage forecast BH Global to record net profit of S$16.5 million (US$339.9 million) this year, a growth of 12.7 percent from last year. Going forward, BH Global is expected to post a net profit growth of around 15 percent year-on-year, it added.
Annual sales in the marine supply chain in Singapore were recorded at S$15.4 billion. Supply chain management of marine products is a small segment of the marine industry and its performance hinges on shipbuilding, ship repair and ship maintenance, according to Polaris.
BH Global CEO Vincent Lim (林翔寬) said yesterday in Taipei that with the global economy recovering, the world’s shipbuilding industry has staged a comeback.
Last year, Singapore accounted for 78 percent of the company’s total revenue, with other countries in Asia and the Middle East accounting for the rest, Lim said.
Singapore will continue to be the most important market for BH Global, but the company will extend its operations into India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, he added.
Singapore, one of the world’s leading ports, is the world’s largest building base for floating production storage offloading units and offshore oil rigs.
Large Singaporean corporations such as Sembcorp Marine Ltd and Keppel Offshore and Marine Ltd are fully integrated companies. They not only engage in shipbuilding, but also have separate business divisions for the installation of marine products.
“However, there is a trend to outsource installation of marine products to marine supply management companies as this segment of the marine industry is labor intensive, requires skilful logistic management and inventory procurement,” Polaris said, adding that BH Global Marine is the largest player in this sector with a market share of close to 20 percent.
additional reporting by CNA
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