Carimin stands fair chance to secure contract

KUALA LUMPUR: Carimin Petroleum Bhd, which is bidding for an estimated RM800 million worth of contracts from oil and gas players operating in Malaysia, foresees a success rate of more than 20%, said its managing director Mokhtar Hashim.
"We will not go into a bid if we are not confident of getting it. In all the bids that we went through, we stand fairly a good chance. Technically I don't see any issue because we have done work many times and have strong track record in the same area we have done before. Yes, we stand a good chance (of winning them)," he told reporters after Carimin's listing ceremony yesterday.
Carimin's orderbook, which will last it until 2018, stands at RM900.8 million to date.
"We are actively securing new contracts and this will boost our order book value. In fact, we are preparing for new bids in Malaysia," he said.
Carimin, which made its debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia yesterday, is one of the leading providers of offshore hook-up and commissioning, platform maintenance services and professional manpower supply to the local oil and gas industry.
At 9am, Carimin's shares were opened at RM1.12 above its reference price of RM1.10 with a premium of two sen with 2.83 million shares traded.
"Given the current situation, we are very pleased (with the opening price). This shows and reflects the investors' confidence," he said.
Carimin's shares closed at RM1.15, up five sen with 43 million shares changed hands.
Carimin's IPO entailed a public issue of 60.7 million new ordinary shares and an offer-for-sale of 5.9 million vendor shares at an issue price of RM1.10 a share.
The company has raised RM66.8 million proceeds, of which RM35.3 million will be used to purchase an accommodation workboat, RM12 million for upgrading its fabrication yard in Kemaman, Terengganu and RM8 million for repayment of bank borrowing.
Some RM8 million of the proceeds used as working capital while the remaining RM3.5 million to defray listing expenses.
Asked on the impact of the current downtrend in the global oil price on Carimin, Mokhtar said: "In fact, we are not just purely capital expenditure but also operating expenditure, I don't think it's going effect (us) because hook-up and maintenance works need to continue. It is something that all oil and gas players will need to do as these projects are all production driven."