Dayang forecasts unchanged after ship sinking incident
KUCHING: Researchers with Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd ( HLIB Research) kept its forecasts unchanged for Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd (Dayang) after Dayang Topaz, a ship with 186 crew members on board has sunk in the South China Sea offshore of Miri in Northern Sarawak after running into trouble on Tuesday morning.
A massive search and rescue operation as launched after distress signals from the Dayang Topaz were picked up. Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has confirmed that, so far, 184 people have been rescued while two were unfortunately found dead.
Malaysian Search and Rescue and Disaster Relief division acting director Commander (M) Dr Suzanna Razali Chan in a statement said based on information from MRCC Putrajaya, two were confirmed dead by medical officers.
Meanwhile, 173 crew out of the 185 who survived the tragedy arrived at Miri Port jetty, while the remaining 12 remained on board to ensure the safety of the ship.
“All victims will undergo Covid-19 screening ( swab test) and be temporarily housed in an accommodation facility for quarantine purposes. SAR operations will be terminated once all victims are identified in the near future,” she said.
“Dayang Topaz, which caters to circa 20 per cent of maintenance work done by Dayang has sunk. We understand that the ship
did not capsize, it sunk and there were only damages to the crane and related items,” HLIB Research said in its notes yesterday.
“Topaz was already due for dry docking soon and the ship will be sent for repair along with its maintenance services. The vessel should be ready for commissioning again after one or two months. In the meantime, Dayang would either deploy Zamrud or one of Perdana’s unutilised vessels to continue its work for Petronas Carigali.
“The damages to the vessel will be fully insured.”
HLIB Research believed that there will be minimal impact towards the operations of Dayang as its management already has a spare unutilised vessel in place to fill in for Topaz.
On the macro front, the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and weak oil prices are also expected to affect Dayang negatively as Petronas will likely continue to underspend on its capital expenditure and operational expenditure.
“We made no changes to our forecast as we expect the unfortunate incident to have minimal impact on Dayang’s operations,” HLIB Research continued, maintainting its hold call on the stock with a target price of 87 sen.
“While the prospects for Dayang would seem very subdued at this juncture, we believe that the stock is fairly priced as share price has fallen by circa 30 per cent since our first downgrade report published on August 24, 2020.”