PST – SGX

PACIFIC SHIPPING TRUST’S US$136 MILLION ACQUISITION TO RAISE REVENUE BY 54% IN 2009

• Acquisition to diversify revenue base and is expected to beyield accretive

SINGAPORE, 14 September 2007 – Pacific Shipping Trust (PST)’s US$136.2 million (S$207 million) proposed acquisition of two new vessels will significantly raise its revenue and total fleet capacity in 2009.

In an announcement to the Stock Exchange today, PST, Singapore’s first publicly-listed business trust, gave more details on the proposed acquisition which was first announced on May 4, 2007.

It said the 4,250 TEU vessels to be acquired from Pacific International Lines (Private) Limited (PIL) and chartered to the Chilean Operator, Compania SudAmericana de Vapores SA (CSAV), the largest liner shipping company in South America, will increase revenue by 54% to about US$53 million per annum and is expected to be yield accretive once they are delivered and in operation.

PST’s fleet capacity will also grow by 61% to 22,364 TEU from 13,864 TEU previously.
The two vessels to be acquired at approximately US$68.1 million each are being constructed at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd, one of China’s most reputable shipyards. They are scheduled for delivery in November and December 2008 respectively. This is PST’s first acquisition since it went public in May 2006.

The acquisition will diversify PST’s revenue base. After the acquisition, the total number of vessels under PST’s portfolio will increase from 8 to 10 and trust expenses per vessel could potentially be lower due to greater economies of scale.

The new vessels will be chartered to CSAV for US$26,000 per day for the first two years and US$25,500 per day for the remaining three years. CSAV is based in Valparaiso, Chile. As on 12th September 2007, the company operates about 84 ships with a slot capacity in the region of 244,000 TEUs. Listed on the Chilean Stock Exchange, CSAV is ranked 16th in the world among container liner operators.

Subhangshu Dutt, CEO of PSTM, said: “We are pleased that our first acquisition is covered by a charterer of such high standing as CSAV. This acquisition is in line with our principal strategy of investing in quality income-producing vessels which will provide a regular and sustainable steam of income to our unitholders as well as enhance the yields on their investments.”

Mr. Dutt also added that the acquisition could mark the start of a longer-term relationship with CSAV, leading to more value creation opportunities in the future.

In connection with the acquisition, PST has entered into a ship management agreement with PIL for the provision of ship management services for one year with an agreed ship management fee of US$ 90,000 per vessel per annum. As the acquisition from PIL and the provision of ship management services by PIL for a fee would constitute interested person transactions under the Listing Manual as their aggregate value exceeds 5% of the latest audited NTA of PST for the year ended 31 December 2006, the acquisition from and provision of ship management services by PIL is conditional upon approval of PST’s unitholders during the extraordinary general meeting to be convened on a later date.

The trustee-manager is PST Management Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of PIL, which owns about 34% of PST.

Source : SGX

September 14, 2007 PST No Comments »

a-iTurst – DBS

Self incubator with robust pipeline

September 14, 2007 a-iTrust No Comments »

Rickmers – SSB

RICKMERS, ssb remains a BUY with target price $2

– 4 vessels acquired for US$276m: Rickmers announced MOU to acquire 4x 4,250TEU container vessels for a total of US$276m from Polaris Shipmanagement pursuant to the right of first offer granted to them. The vessels are among the 9x 4,250TEU vessels Rickmers disclosed in their IPO prospectus for having right of first offer. The vessels will be paid for upon delivery which is scheduled between Feb and Dec 2009.

– 7-year time charter to Hanjin: Each vessel comes with 7-year fixed rate time charter to Hanjin Shipping (000700.KS) at a rate of US$25,950 per day with an option for an additional 3 years at US27,950 per day. CFO of RTM commented that each vessel is expected to contribute approximately US$9m in revenue and US$7m in EBIT per annum.

– What to expect : This is the type of acquisition we believe investors will continue to look for. Along with the recent MOU for 4x 13,100TEU vessels with Maersk, the current addition will raise total contracted fleet capacity by 170% from 40,910TEU to 110,310TEU. We expect further MOUs on additional vessel acquisitions to be announced in coming months.

– Buy for yield and growth: Reiterate our S$2.0 target price based on 7% yield and 5% distribution growth by year two and based on acquiring 10 accretive vessels on long-term charters.

September 13, 2007 Rickmers No Comments »

Cambridge – Daiwa

CAMBRIDGE, Daiwa remains OUTPERFORM with target price $1.06 (from $0.98)

– We maintain our 2 (Outperform) rating for Cambridge Industrial Trust (Cambridge) ahead of its S$193.9m equity fund-raising exercise, announced on 6 September. With the recent unit-price stability (and even a mild recovery) and a higher sustainable leverage-ratio assumption, we have revised up our distribution-per-unit (DPU) forecasts and raised our six-month target price, based on our RNG valuation method, to S$1.06 from S$0.98.

– The equity fund raising, subject to unitholders’ approval at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for 25 September, will be through a private placement, which management expects to be completed by the end of October. The funding will be for acquisitions announced already, which comprise 1 Tuas Avenue 3, 9 Bukit Batok Street 22, 7 Ubi Close, 120 Pioneer Road, 48 Toh Guan Road East, and 23 Woodlands Terrace. We have already incorporated the estimated contributions from these target properties into our forecasts.

– We have not changed our acquisition assumption of S$500m for 2007, so the only change to our forecast lies in our equity-financing assumption. We now assume that Cambridge will raise the announced S$193.9m for 2007 (from our previous assumption of S$330m). The lighter-than-expected fund raising would leave it with an estimated leverage ratio of 48.4% at the end of the year, much higher than the estimated year-end leverage of 34.8%, based on our previous assumption. Instead of raising enough equity to meet its financing requirements up to late 2008, we now assume that Cambridge’s financing strategy will be to raise enough equity to tide itself over until early-to-mid 2008, when we expect another major equity financing exercise.

– With the change in our equity-financing assumption and the recovery of its unit price (we have raised our placement-price assumption to S$0.78, from S$0.75 previously) since our previous report (see Yield screams louder, published on 20 August), we have revised up our DPU forecasts by 3.0% for 2007, 6.0% for 2008 and 10.5% for 2009. We caution that our DPU forecasts are highly sensitive to price assumptions (due to their direct impact on the number of units outstanding) for future fund raising.

– We have raised our six-month target price, based on our RNG valuation method, to S$1.06 from S$0.98, due to our higher assumptions for the placement price and recurrent-leverage ratio (loan to asset) of 45% (from 40% previously).

September 13, 2007 ESR No Comments »

Parkway Life – SGX

COMPLETION OF SETTLEMENT FOR EXERCISE OF OVER-ALLOTMENT OPTION

Further to the announcement on 7 September 2007 issued by UBS AG, acting through its business group, UBS Investment Bank, in respect of, inter alia, the exercise of the overallotment
option granted by Parkway Investments Pte Ltd in connection with the initial public offering of Parkway Life Real Estate Investment Trust (“Parkway Life REIT”), Parkway Trust Management Limited, the Manager of Parkway Life REIT, wishes to announce that pursuant thereto, the Joint Lead Underwriters have today completed the settlement for the exercise of the over-allotment option of 11,097,000 Units granted by Parkway Investments Pte Ltd.

Pursuant to the exercise of the over-allotment option by the Joint Lead Underwriters, Parkway Investments Pte Ltd holds 213,257,000 Units (approximately 35.46% of the total issued Units
in Parkway Life REIT).

Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd. and UBS AG, acting through its business group, UBS Investment Bank, were the joint global co-ordinators, joint bookrunners and joint lead
underwriters to the initial public offering of Parkway Life REIT.

September 13, 2007 PLife No Comments »