Nam Cheongannounced another round of vessel sales worth US$59m for two accommodation work barges to be delivered in 1H-2014. The pricing is within expectations and the vessels were sold to repeat customer Perdana Petroleum, one of the major offshore services providers in Malaysia. YTD, Nam Cheong has won orders for 6 vessels across its build-to-stock and build-to-order business models and is on track to achieve FY13/14 sales targets. Orderbook now stands at about RM1.4bn. This underpins robust earnings trajectory for the Group in FY13/14. We expect Nam Cheong to secure order wins for another 8-10 vessels in FY13, which will cover FY13 completions and half of FY14 completions. Maintain BUY with TP of S$0.30. Expect the stock to firm up after holding at $0.245-0.25 over the past 2-3 weeks.

Vard Holdings(previously STX OSV Holdings) has secured a LOI with Simon Mokster Shipping, Norway, for design and construction of 1 PSV. To be delivered in 1Q-2015 from Norway yard, the vessel will be built to internal design PSV 06 LNG with dual-fuel LNG/ diesel-electric capabilities. The contract value is not disclosed but we estimate could be about NOK400m, based on previous similar orders. When finalised, this will bring YTD FY13 contract wins to NOK2.9bn, or 23% of our full year order win estimate of NOK12.5bn. Vard remains a key proxy to the buoyant subsea market; maintain BUY with TP S$1.57.

Boustead has bagged contracts worth $60m from oil and gas industries globally. The contracts, won since the start of its new financial year this month, raised the group's orderbook backlog to $415m. The deals involve the design, engineering and construction of key process systems and waste heat recovery units for downstream oil refineries and gas processing plants in Canada, Finland, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

Mapletree Industrial Trust reported a 8.8% and 7.8% growth in gross revenue and net property income to S$72.1m and S$49.6m respectively. 4Q13 DPU of 2.29 Scts is in line. The stronger performance was largely organic-led with positive rental reversions achieved portfolio wide, while occupancy levels remained fairly stable at close to 95.4% (vs 95.2% a quarter ago). Net property income (NPI) margins, however, is under pressure. NPI compressed to c68.7% (vs 70.9% a quarter ago) due to increases from maintenance, utilities and security contracts and is expected to remain stable from now on. More updates post analyst briefing today.

According to an article in Straits Times, Nestle has started legal proceedings against Petra Foodsover alleged trademark infringement of the former's Kit Kat chocolate bars. Nestle has claimed that Petra Food's Take-It product has a similar shape to Kit Kat and wants the production to be stopped. Petra, on the other hand, is counter suing Nestle over the validity of the two-finger and four-finger trademarks. We estimate that the revenue contribution of Take-It, introduced in Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines account for less than 1% of the group's Branded Consumer revenue. Petra share price has done well since the announcement of the proposed US$950m Cocoa Ingredients business to Barry Callebaut in December last year. We will not be surprise if there is near term weakness on this news. We currently have a Hold call on Petra with a TP of S$4.06.

Singapore Airlineshas agreed to acquire another 9.9% of Virgin Australia in a move that will increase its stake to 19.9%. SIA acquired 10% of Virgin Australia in late 2012 through an injection of funds in Virgin Australia Holdings.

UE E&C has been awarded the nominated sub-contract for supply and installation of air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation, building management, fire protection, electrical and engineering smoke control services to the proposed erection of 4-storey commercial development at Sengkang West Avenue / Fernvale Road at The Seletar Mall. The project sum is about S$20.7m. The contract period is for 20 months and the project is expected to be completed by November 2014.

Synear Food Holdingsannounced that its production plant in Sichuan Province suffered minor physical damage as a result of the earthquake and has temporarily shut down as a precautionary measure. The temporary suspension of production at the plant will affect production and sales of the company in the south-western region of China (including Sichuan Province).

Action Asia is expected to report a loss for 1Q13, attributed to the decrease in revenue which was mainly due to lower selling price for our consumer lifestyle entertainment products.

Plunging car prices drove Singapore's inflation rate down to 3.5% in March - the lowest it has been in more than two years. But core inflation could still rise in the second half of the year as economic restructuring costs pass through to prices, according to the market. Consumer prices rose by 3.5% y-o-y, less than consensus forecast of 3.6%. Our economist has lowered full-year inflation forecasts to 3.6% from 4%. In month-on-month terms, the consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.5% in March after rising 1% in February. Excluding private road transport and accommodation costs - which accounted for more than two-thirds of March's inflation - core inflation eased to 1.7%, from 1.9% in February. The government is keeping to its 2013 forecasts of 3-4% headline inflation and 1.5-2.5% core inflation.

Singapore Changi Airport achieved a 7.7% y-o-y growth in passenger traffic for March, registering 4.61m passenger movements, a historic high for the month of March. In the first quarter of the year, the airport handled 13.05m passengers, a 6.2% growth over last year's figure. This was a result of the growth in air traffic in north-east Asia, the southwest Pacific and South Asia. Aircraft movements also rose - by 5.3% to 28,400 flights, compared with 26,981 flights in March last year. Aircraft movements for the quarter recorded a 3.9% y-o-y growth to 82,600 flights, compared with 79,500 flights the previous year. Low-cost carriers took up about 30% of both passenger movements and air traffic movements in March.

China's flash purchasing managers' index (PMI) compiled by Markit and HSBC came in at 50.5 points, against 51.6 points in March, dragged down by new export orders. Five of the 11 indicators fell yesterday, pointing to subdued growth for the second quarter as growth in economies worldwide has yet to gain momentum. New export orders fell to 48.6 this month, from 50.5 in March, its lowest figure in six months, with Europe, China's first trading partner, remaining mired in recession. Other main indictors also pointed down, with employment falling for a third consecutive month.

A string of good corporate results from DuPont, Delta Air, US Airways and Coach amongst others lifted US markets higher yesterday. In after hours, Apple sales forecasted sales that missed analysts' estimates as iPhone sales slowed and competition increased. Still, shares are higher in after-hours trade as the company said it will raise quarterly dividend by 15% and boost its share-repurchase program to US$60bil from US$10bil.

Source: DBSV