Seatrium shares surge 8% after company flags swing to first-half net profit

SINGAPORE – Shares of offshore and marine specialist Seatrium rallied on July 29 after it released its profit guidance for the first half of 2024.

Seatrium said in a filing on the Singapore Exchange before the market opened that the group is expected to report a net profit for the six months to June 30, based on a preliminary review of its unaudited financial results.

The group will be releasing its first-half results on Aug 2 before trading hours.

Seatrium’s share price hit a session-high of $1.65 just before midday, up 10 per cent from its previous close of $1.50 on July 26. The counter closed 12 cents, or 8 per cent, higher at $1.62.

Some 90.7 million shares changed hands, making it the day’s most active stock.

Analyst consensus gathered by the Refinitiv data platform put the target share price for Seatrium at $2.79.

Seatrium in February reported a net loss of $1.7 billion for the second half-year ended December 2023, making for a full-year loss of $1.9 billion, largely due to non-cash write-downs, provisions for contracts, legal and corporate claims, as well as expenses for its merger with Keppel Offshore and Marine.

In July, Seatrium chief executive officer Chris Ong told The Straits Times that the company is turning around. It had

grown its net order book to about $26 billion

, with orders from the world’s largest oil and gas and renewable players, he said.

He noted that Seatrium is also no longer a single product company, as it now operates across a spectrum of energy-related services. These range from the construction and installation of offshore wind substations and turbines and electric offshore transmission systems, to the construction of floating production storage and offloading vessels, ship construction, repairs, and more.

In July, Seatrium also announced that it had

secured $180 million worth of contracts

to repair and upgrade various kinds of vessels. All the projects, except one, will be completed by the end of 2024.

The contracts include major repairs on offshore vessels, naval vessels, ferries, liquefied natural gas carriers and tankers, as well as damage repair.

Seatrium has also been winning global offshore wind projects. In Britain, it is working on a 1.4GW high-voltage direct current offshore converter platform for Sofia Offshore Wind Farm, which will help to transmit offshore wind power to the mainland power grid.

The company is also working on projects in Taiwan, the German and Dutch North Sea, and the United States, among others.