Phillip Securities Research in a Nov 4 research report says: "Cosco reported 3Q10 revenue of $952.7 million (+27% y-o-y) and net profit of $55.1 million (+147% y-o-y). The strong performance was due to higher revenue from ship building and offshore marine engineering projects as well as dry bulk shipping.

"Since Jan 1, 2010, Cosco has won orders of about $2.6 billion for vessels that will be delivered up to FY2013. As improvements in productivity are likely to increase its profit margins, we have raised our profit forecasts by 21.8%, 29.3% and 31.3% to $202.7 million, $213.7 million and $225.0 million in FY2010E, FY2011E and FY2012E respectively.

"Due to the improvement in the operating environment, we forecast higher profit for the next three years. We raise Cosco fair value from $1.65 to $2.32. This is a change from 3.12 times FY2010E book value to 3.80 times FY2011E book value. UPGRADE TO BUY."

DBS Vickers Securities  in a Nov 8 research report says: "Hyflux’s 3Q10 profit after tax and minority interest (PATMI) of $19 million (+5% y-o-y) met consensus ($25 million) if excluding $7.9 million of forex losses but trumped our estimate of $14 million because of an earlier than expected rebound in China industrial projects that were put on hold during last year’s crisis.

"The more profitable industrial business lifted gross margin to 47.8% from 35.8% in 3Q09. Nevertheless, these were negated by higher costs and forex losses, which led net margin to end a shade lower at 13.8% compared to 14.3% in 3Q09. Sales grew 9% to $137.5 million. A 1-for-2 bonus issue was proposed to improve share liquidity.

"FY10F raised by 32% to account for rebound from China industrials but FY11F is cut by 5% as we removed all Libyan assumptions. Hyflux’s project pipeline is reportedly healthy but with little insight into the size/type of projects, we maintain our new win assumption at $160 million/$250 million for FY10/11F. With FY11F downgrade, our FY11-based SOTP fair value on Hyflux is correspondingly lowered to $3.20 from $3.40. MAINTAIN HOLD."

DBS Vickers Securities in a Nov 4 research report says: "CHO posted revenue of US$14.4 million (-13% y-o-y, -5% q-o-q) as 2 vessels were unable to secure work during the period.

"Excluding vessel disposal gains of US$1.0 million, we estimate CHO’s 1Q11 recurring net profit to be US$7.2 million (-30% y-o-y, -25% q-o-q), 21% below our expectations. As expected, gross margins weakened to 55.9% (-8.2ppt y-o-y) on lower overall fleet utilization. CHO returned to its net cash position from a marginal net gearing of 0.02x as at end June 2010.

"To account for our reduced utilization rate and gross margin assumptions, we have cut our FY2011/2012 recurring earnings forecasts by 17% and 16% respectively. Our target price is correspondingly lowered to 60 cents (previous 70 cents), pegged to 9x recurring FY11 PE. We believe utilization and day rates are unlikely to pick up in a meaningful way in the near term. MAINTAIN HOLD."