Mermaid

Mermaid: Announced that its subsidiary, MTR-1 has secured an accommodation barge support services contract with a potential value of US$5m. Contract was awarded by an existing client - an international upstream oil and gas company - and is for a duration of five months in Indonesia. MTR-1 is currently in Indonesia performing accommodation barge support services for the same client in a contract scheduled to end in Sept12. This new contract will commence back-to-back with the company's existing contract for the MTR-1. We note that could be another potential turnard co. after the grp recently posted an improved set of 3Q12 results which saw rev at Thb 1.75b, +20.5% yoy and net profit at Thb 138.5m, +194.2% yoy, attributed to higher rev for grp's subsea segment which increased by 18.7% YoY due to utilisation rates and average day rates remaining stable YoY. Grp’s Drilling segment also reported rev of Thb 318.1m, an increase of 30.0% YoY due to MTR-1 resuming operations as an accommodation barge post its special periodic survey. Note that the recent M&A transactions in SG has been largely attributed/linked to Thai Co's. E.g Sakari (PTT) and Thai Bev. Hence, do not rule out market playing on a similar theme regarding Mermaid, with 66% of grp’s shares in control by its Thai shareholders.