Warrants Highlight

Ezra in the media spotlight

Ezra Holdings, a leading offshore contractor and provider of integrated offshore solutions, has received a large amount of media coverage since the start of September. Macquarie is pleased to list a new warrant on Ezra Holdings this morning.

Listing of Triyards
On 1st September, Ezra announced the proposed listing of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Triyards on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange. Triyards offer engineering and fabrication services and the company's objective is to establish itself as one of the leading self-elevating units and platforms, offshore support and construction vessels and offshore equipment fabrication yards in Vietnam and South East Asia.

Ezra is planning to distribute one Triyards share for every 10 Ezra shares each investor owns, meaning that 33% of Triyards will be given away in the form of dividends in specie. Ezra will retain control over the company's remaining 67%. As a separate entity, Triyards' independence coupled with its "growth and ability to seize new opportunities can be funded by its own balance sheet and access to the capital markets", Mr Wong Bheet Huat said. Mr Wong has stepped down from Ezra's board and has taken on the CEO position of Triyards.

Wins cable installation contract for world's largest gas platform
Just last week, Ezra's subsea construction division, EMAS AMC, has been awarded a contract by ABB for the installation of subsea power cables. They are to install one HVAC subsea cable and two circuits of HVDC subsea cables from Troll A (a platform in the North Sea), to the land station, Kollsnes. The increase in power provided by the new cables will enable two compressor drive systems, which will improve production capacity and extend the lifespan of the platform. Operations of the cable installation will start in 2Q 2014 and Ezra is pleased to be awarded the contract since it demonstrates the company's "ability to deliver high-end installation services catering to the offshore energy industry by utilizing their advanced installation assets and strong engineering capabilities".

Oversubscription of fixed-rate notes
Last Friday, Ezra issued S$200mil, 5% fixed rates notes, maturing on 7 September 2015 to institution and/or sophisticated investors. Proceedings from the issuance will be used to refinance existing short-term borrowings of the company and its subsidiaries. This is the group's biggest issue to date and the notes are expected to be listed and quoted on the SGX today.

Within the day of issue, all the notes were fully subscribed and Ezra's Managing Director, Mr Lionel Lee said that "the notes were oversubscribed despite the challenging world economic situation" reflecting investors' confidence and "conviction in Ezra's management team and their strategy for future growth".

Other new Macquarie warrants listings
Besides new warrants over Ezra, Macquarie is listing new warrants over NOL and Biosensors today.

Singapore Market Wrap

STI Broke Losing Streak with a Positive Friday

Last Thursday's ECB bond-buying announcement gave global equities a much needed boost. The STI managed to break its 4-day losing streak with a 0.8% gain on Friday, however this was not enough to recoup its earlier losses as the local index fell 0.5% week-on-week (wow) to 3,011.7.

Last week's data showed that Singapore's August Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) fell to 49.1 from 49.8 in July. The slowdown in the global economy caused a drop in new orders for the manufacturers. Employment also shrank for the 14th consecutive month in Singapore.

STI 3100MBeCW121031 (Q1AW) exercise level 3,100.*
STI 2950MBePW121031 (Q0ZW) exercise level 2,950.*

STX OSV surged after MER's initiation
Norwegian Offshore Support Vessels (OSV) builder, STX OSV, rallied 7.6% last week to close at $1.635. Macquarie Equities Research (MER) initiated coverage on the company on 31st Aug with an Outperform rating and a target price of $2.16. The report was titled "STX OSV - Gold, for the price of silver"

For more details of the report, please visit http://www.warrants.com.sg/en/market/highlight_e.cgi?id=601&syear=2012&smonth=9

Call warrant STXOSV MB eCW130201 (Q5PW) exercise price $1.65.*

CapitaLand rallied 2.3% wow
Last week, CapitaLand launched Raffles City Chengdu, a grade A office tower and shopping mall which will begin operations this month. The building is located along Renmin South Road and sits in the heart of Chengdu's international business hub.

The property developer's shares rallied strongly on Friday to close at $3.08, after reaching an intra-day high of $3.10. CapitaLand call warrant Q0MW was actively traded last week with more than 17mn changing hands. Over the week, Q0MW rose 8.6% to $0.063.

Call warrant CapitalaMBeCW130103 (Q0MW) exercise price $3.00.*
Put warrant CapitalaMBePW130103 (Q4EW) exercise price $3.00.*
Long dated call warrant CapitalaMBeCW131202 (Q7YW) exercise price $3.60.*

Overnight Market Wrap

Speculation on US stimulus rises on weak employment data

On Friday, the US indices continued their advance, with the S&P closing at 1437.92, up 0.4% day on day despite disappointing employment data.

Non-farm payrolls rose a disappointing 96k, falling short of the median estimate of 92 economist surveyed by Bloomberg calling for a gain of 130k. While the unemployment rate improved to 8.1%, it still remained above 8%. Investors took the data as a positive sign that the Federal Reserve might announce a monetary easing this FOMC meeting which will be held this Wednesday and Thursday (12-13 Sept).

The expectations were not unfounded, especially after Chairman Ben Bernanke called unemployment a "grave concern" during his speech at Jackson Hole. During Obama's campaign, he also mentioned that the government knows the employment situation is not ideal and that they "need to create more jobs, faster".

Overnight Markets

Indices	Last	Change
STI	3011.70	0.8%
HSI	19802.20	3.1%
DJIA	13306.60	0.1%
S&P 500	1437.92	0.4%
Nasdaq	3136.42	0.0%
China A50	7336.59	4.3%

Corporate News

Corporate Announcements

Ex-dividend dates:
Wed 26 Sep: SGX ($0.15)
Tue 6 Nov: Olam ($0.05)