At 76% of our full-year forecast, Swissco's 1H15 core net profit of US$30.8m exceeded our expectation. The positive variance stemmed from stronger contributions from its two wholly-owned drilling rigs. Meanwhile, contracts for two of its Ensco rigs set to come off-hire in 2H15 have been rolled-over by 2-3 months. We raise our FY15 EPS by 18% to incorporate the earnings beat and lift our FY16-17 EPS by 2-3%. Given its current 0.5x CY15 P/BV valuation, we believe the market has priced in the cancellation of all its nine rig contracts, which we deem too bearish.
We maintain Add, with a lower target price, now based on 1x CY15 P/BV, Ezion's past one-year average valuation (prev. blended valuations).
Renewal of the four Ensco rigs could catalyse the stock.
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