Perisai ...Nov09

It is in talks with parties in Australia, Indonesia and India to secure the first contract for its award-winning mobile offshore production and storage unit (Mopsu).

It looked forward to securing its first contract, which would keep it busy for “a few” years. He was not able to share any earnings or revenue projection from these contracts.

Mopsu is in line with Perisai’s strategy to grow in niche areas. The Mopsu TECHNOLOGY [ ], known for its cost efficiency and mobility versus typical drilling platforms, was suitable for shallow water and marginal fields. Perisai was recently awarded the “Excellence in Innovation” award by Frost&Sullivan for using Mopsu.

The Mopsu, with a life span of about 25 years, had the capability to operate water depths of 80 to 120 metres, depending on its variant or type. It costs about US$70 million (RM235.9 million) to US$80 million to fabricate a Mopsu.

To fund the deployment of the first Mopsu, Perisai recently raised funds via a US$10 million redeemable convertible bonds (RCB), which were fully taken up by a private equity fund in Singapore.

Noteworthy is that the RCBs are the first US dollar-denominated bonds issued and cleared in Malaysia, paving way for more of these issuances to come.

Perisai has tied up with Gryphon Energy (Asia Pacific) Sdn Bhd, the exclusive licensee of Mopsu, to establish a new company to market Mopsu in the Asia-Pacific region and will have the option to take up to 90% stake in each of the Mopsu units as well as the right of refusal on value-added services.

Perisai will hold a 49% stake in the new company and the rest by Gryphon. Mopsu’s intellectual property is owned by Kingtime International Ltd.

The company’s earnings would come from its vessels and corrosive control services.

The group’s net profit rose nearly ninefold to RM33.15 million in its first half ended June 30, 2009 from RM3.74 million a year earlier, while revenue rose 143% to RM66.96 million from RM27.64 million. Basic earnings per share rose to 9.02 sen from 1.80 sen.

Perisai attributed the increase in revenue and net profit to the execution of the existing bareboat charter contract for the Derrick Lay Barge and the lease of a portable saturation diving system.
The group’s successful track record and its proprietary technology put it in the forefront for securing potential new contracts in the region as oil companies ventured into marginal fields, deepwater and remote environments.

Unlike other systems, which relied on drilling rigs, wellhead platforms, pipelines or a floating storage and offloading vessel, Mopsu used modular drilling units, integrated storage and a detachable drilling template, with almost the entire system fully recoverable and reusable.