Friday, October 29, 2010

MARC places Petra Perdana RM800m dual currency on MARCWatch Negative

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd has placed its A+ rating on PETRA PERDANA BHD []'s RM800 million dual currency revolving facility on MARCWatch Negative.

The rating agency said on Friday, Oct 29 the rating action was triggered by the group's poor financial performance in the six months ended June 30, 2010 (1H2010).

During the period, Petra Perdana posted loss before tax of RM30.7 million due to falling charter rates, lower capacity utilisation and decrease in contribution from its integrated brownfield services division.

'Due to its inability to secure adequate contracts, six of its 23 offshore support vessels are currently in lay-up and are awaiting disposal,' it said.

MARC also highlighted Petra Perdana group's cash balances as at June 30, 2010 has declined to RM32.9 million (December 2009: RM179.7 million) due to negative net cashflow from operating activities of RM63.9 million and net repayment of its other borrowings amounting to RM101.6 million during the period.

Its short-term liquidity is supported by its private placement and rights issue exercises which raised'' RM111.7 million.

'However, MARC opines that Petra Perdana's credit metrics is no longer consistent with its current rating level, due to its significantly weaker cash generation ability, relative to its fairly high ongoing debt servicing requirements.

'The group's leverage remains elevated as at June 30, 2010 as measured by its adjusted debt-to-equity including operating lease commitments of 2.28 times,' it said.

MARC said it was in the process of completing its review on Petra Perdana and expected to complete the review over the next four to five weeks.

Petra Perdana is an offshore marine services provider which operates 23 offshore support vessels and owns 29.6% of PETRA ENERGY BHD [].


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