EIG Management, a large US-based investment firm, has named several yards including Keppel Corp, Sembcorp Marine (SMM), and Odebrecht as defendants in an amendment to proceedings which were commenced against Petrobras in Feb this year. This is in a filing to the US District Court of Columbia.

According to Upstream, EIG alleged that the companies conspired to fraudulently induce funds managed by EIG to invest over US$221m to purchase equity in Sete Brasil (now under judicial recovery). EIG claimed that the contract bidding process for the rigs “was rigged from the start”, and alleged that the yards agreed to pay bribes and kickbacks.

According to Sembcorp Industries’ annual report, the group only had S$7.2m of assets in the US as at end FY15. Keppel Corp’s assets in the US should be more, as it has the Keppel AmFELS yard and assets in the property division.

This lawsuit is likely to be closely monitored as there are also other investment firms, like EIG, that invested in Sete Brasil. Meanwhile, we currently have a SELL on SMM with a fair value estimate of S$1.14, and a HOLD on Keppel Corp with a fair value estimate of S$5.57.

Source: OCBC Research - 24 May 2016