News

ASL Marine Shares Set To List On SGX Mainboard On Monday, 17 March 2003

 Offer Shares is approximately 3 times subscribed

Net proceeds from subscription of all New Shares Offering to be used mainly to build floating dock in Batam and for fleet expansion/renewal

Singapore - 14 March 2003 - ASL Marine Holdings Ltd ("ASL Marine"), an integrated marine company principally involved in shipyard operations and shipchartering, and with facilities bases strategically located in Singapore and Batam, Indonesia, today announced the successful initial public offering (IPO) of its shares, in conjunction with its listing on the Mainboard of the SGX.

The IPO was for 50 million new shares, comprising 40 million placement shares (including 3 million reserved shares) and 10 million public offer shares.  Both the placement tranche and public offer were well-received. ASL Marine generated over 1,500 shareholders from the IPO.  The public tranche - which accounted for 20% of the entire Invitation shares, is approximately 3 times subscribed, with 777 valid applications representing an aggregate of 29.5 million shares received.

"Amidst current market conditions the response to our IPO is very encouraging and we believe that it underscores investors' recognition of the strong business fundamentals of ASL Marine.  We are grateful for the public's confidence and are committed to further build on our competitive strengths.  Our core businesses of shipchartering, shipbuilding and shiprepair are positioned to capitalise further on market opportunities and contribute to our Group's financial performance.  In FY2002, gross profit contribution from each of these core businesses were fairly balanced.  All of the net proceeds from the IPO will be used for the Company's growth and expansion," said Mr Ang Kok Tian, Chairman and Managing Director of ASL Marine.

ASL Marine services customers mainly from Asia Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East and Europe, with Singapore as its biggest market.  They include companies in the offshore and marine infrastructure, shipping, port operations and other sectors.  Some of the Company's major customers include PSA Marine (Pte) Ltd, PT Karimun Granite, PT Agus Suta Lines, Boskalis International (S) Pte Ltd, TOA-JDN (PUT) Joint Venture, and Dredging International Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd.

In ASL Marine's public launch on 5 March 2003, Mr Ang stressed that the Company's investment strengths include :

?        its market niche positions; i.e. in shipchartering servicing the offshore and marine infrastructure sector, mainly in Singapore; and as a shipbuilder and shiprepairer mainly of tugboats and barges;

?        its diversified and well-established clients base, with repeat customers accounting for over 90% of its revenue for the last 2 financial years

?        its financial track record profitability and healthy operating cash flows.

-      For the financial year ended 30 June 2002, the Company had net profit of $7.1 million on revenues of $64.6 million, a return on equity of approximately 22%.

-      As disclosed in the prospectus, for FY 2003, the directors intend to recommend and distribute not less than 30% of net profit attributable to shareholders as dividends.

?        Its pricing at 21 cents per share represents a historical (FY 2002) price-earnings ratio (PER) of 5.88 times of its post-Invitation share capital.

UOB Asia Limited is the Manager, Underwriter and Placement Agent of the IPO.  According to Ms Adora Yay Valenton, Associate Director for Corporate Finance of UOB Asia, "The set-up of the floating dock in Batam will provide the Batam shipyard with drydocking capabilities to complement its shipbuilding and afloat shiprepair facilities and will equip the shipyard with more comprehensive facilities to undertake more high-value added shiprepair projects.  This will enable the Group to further capitalise on the generally lower cost of labour and some other operating costs in Batam."

"On a Group basis, with the floating dock's maximum lifting capacity of approximately 4,500 tonnes as planned, it will further increase the shipyards' lifting capacities from approximately 800 tonnes as currently provided by the mobile Marine Travelift used in the Singapore shipyard for drydocking and ship launching.  In shipchartering, part of the net proceeds will be used for fleet expansion and upgrading.  This is in line with ASL Marine's plans to expand the range of sectors and geographical coverage serviced by its shipchartering business," added Ms Valenton.

Mr Ang cites, "For our shipchartering business, we plan to continue to seek active opportunities in offshore and marine infrastructure and other sectors/industries, especially in Southeast Asia.  For our shipyard business, we believe that some of the demand for newbuildings may be for offshore support vessels and/or replacement requirements for ageing vessels."

He added, "We have observed more emphasis by ports and terminals towards more stringent safety and performance standards on vessels, and we believe this will provide continuing opportunities for our shipbuilding business.  We will also work hard in maintaining a stable share of the shiprepair market and will tap the benefits of generally lower labour costs and other operating costs in our Batam shipyard, as well as rationalised operations between our yards in Singapore and Batam."

The shares are expected to commence trading on 17 March 2003.

Additional Notes :

The total issue of 50 million new shares in this initial public offering represents approximately 25% of ASL Marine's enlarged share capital comprising 198 million shares.  The net proceeds of close to $9 million from the IPO will be used for the following purposes :

• Approximately $4.5 million to finance the construction of a 4,500-tonne floating dock for PT ASL Shipyard;
• Approximately $3.0 million to be used for fleet renewal such as the acquisition of new vessels and/or upgrading of existing vessels; and
• Balance to be used for working capital purposes and/or possible mergers, acquisition or joint ventures.

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Contact Information

August Consulting

Tel: 6733 8873   Fax: 6733 9913

Karen Ting - karen@august.com.sg

Winston Choo - winston@august.com.sg