INTERVIEW - Singapore's CSC Holdings eyes Indian, Vietnamese markets 6/8/2007 1:25:00

INTERVIEW - Singapore's CSC Holdings eyes Indian, Vietnamese markets 6/8/2007 1:25:00
PM SINGAPORE (XFN-ASIA) -

CSC Holdings Ltd, a building foundation specialist, is looking at opportunities in India and Vietnam because it expects these two countries to accelerate their investment in infrastructure in the next few years, CSC president and group chief executive See Yen Tarn said. See told XFN-Asia in an interview that setting its sights on opportunities overseas should give the group balanced growth in the future, should the construction boom here falter -- although at this stage it was likely that the boom would continue. "We have a clear visibility in the domestic market in the next 3-5 years," See said. The construction industry here is busy building casino resorts at Marina Bay and on Sentosa island, new shopping malls on Orchard Road, the Marina Bay Financial Centre and upmarket residential condominiums in and around the central business district. CSC's latest results reflect the industry's rapid growth. In the financial year ended March, CSC's net profit surged 127.6 pct to 8.6 mln sgd as revenue rose 18.1 pct to 126.7 mln sgd and net profit margins widened to 7.3 pct from 4.1 pct. Growth in the next few years will be underpinned by the group's order book, worth about 380 mln sgd, which includes a 240 mln sgd contract secured by CSC's wholly-owned subsidiary L&M Foundation Specialist Pte Ltd with the Marina Bay Sands casino resort. See said CSC's capacity was almost fully utilized now, given that Marina Bay Sands, which opens in 2009, and other projects here will keep the group busy in the next few years. See said that he would focus on finishing projects already in the pipeline rather than go after new projects vigorously. "We should be able to secure a few more jobs, but we do have capacity constraints," See said. The tight supply of specialized construction equipment and labor are among these constraints. See said his company would begin taking opportunities abroad only next year or after. He believes the next construction booms will be in India and Vietnam, because both countries have under-invested in infrastructure and the economic growth there in the past few years has put a strain on infrastructure. He reckons CSC will be able to seize opportunities in Malaysia much more quickly than in Vietnam or India because it already has a foothold in Malaysia. In March 2006, CSC bought G-Pile Sistem Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian provider of hydraulic jack-in piling services. "G-Pile will be our platform to expand into Malaysia," See said. There are also a number of infrastructure and property projects in Malaysia, notably the plan to transform the Iskandar Development Region in the southern state of Johor into an industrial and tourism hub.

Pan United Marine / Superbowl

Sigh... 1 more gem being taken over. There was a takeover offer of 2.38 from Dubai Drydocks World. I think I have not much to comment but it is too low which I expect to reach 3.00. Ex-cash, it is about 10-11x PE. Looks like the Ng family will like to enjoy their fruits of labour early. What I am puzzled is why are they selling so low unless they have a better investments around ?

My entry price is from 50 cents + and even accumulated in Feb around 1.7. It gave me very good returns as well as big dividends. I will miss this one. I sold everything at 2.41, which I was quite surprised someone took. Either something is still brewing or someone did not do his sums right. Well.....

I am looking at some of the other oil counters and another 1-2 counters right now to replace this.

Superbowl - it shoot up about 50% from my buying price, while this may continue, I think it is good enough for me.

Old Airport Road property

I am helping a colleague to source for property around where I stay - Old Airport Road. Wah the property here really sells like hot cakes. When I tried to source and co-broke, most of the flats were sold. The only ones left were low floors or Non-Chinese.

She wanted to have a flat here where is near her in-laws so that travelling to-fro to collect her 1 yr old son from her in-laws will be much more convenient. Now, it is a bit of logistic nightmare as she lives quite far. Also she is targetting the Kong Hua school for a son.

I have been enquiring around and the transacted price here is also also about 20% above valuation. That means about 50-60K cash uprfront. Well, that is the price to pay for the convenience and location - school and when the MRT circle line comes in.