Jaya

Jaya: Gaining investors interests. Recall recently that IHC Asia Pacific has signed an agreement with Jaya, which enables IHC Asia Pacific's high-spec offshore vessels to be produced by Jaya at its yards in SG and Batam. In the meantime, Jaya is building up its own fleet of offshore support vessels for its core business of chartering. Grp boasts a young fleet, with 28 vessels with an average age of only 2.9 yrs, while the charter backlog amounted to US$196m as at Sep12. 10 vessels are being built and will be competed over the next 2 yrs (which would boost its RNAV to over $1/share, by some investors' estimates) but even with the bigger fleet, grp would still be sub-optimal, says CEO. With a much larger and re-configured fleet mix, Jaya would be able to spread its geographic risks by operating in, Middle East, Africa and Latin. Jaya wants to boost its presence in the latter two regions, as well as enter the Brazilian, Mexican and Australian regions. Grp add that the near-term focus is on optimising internal systems and processes, improving capabilities, and building and deploying the 10 vessels on order. With a total building capacity of 9 vessels a year in its Singapore and Batam yards, Jaya would in due course weigh the choices of organic and inorganic growth of its fleet. Meanwhile, with higher charter rates in the industry and corporate developments at Jaya, including a new US$150 m loan facility retiring Jaya's old debt and paving the way for the resumption of a div payout, Jaya has attracted the interest of fund managers. Recall recently DBSV re-instated coverage of the stock with a 'buy' call and an 85c TP.