Alam Maritim hopes to return to profitability

KUALA LUMPUR: Offshore support vessels (OSV) and sub-sea services provider Alam Maritim Resources Bhd hopes to return to the black in the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2018 on the back of newly-secured oil and gas (O&G) related contracts.

Group chief executive officer Datuk Azmi Ahmad said the group was short of long-term contracts in 2017 compared with this year, during which it managed to secure several long-term contracts to help lift the vessel utilisation rate.

“We hope the new contracts will enable the company to return to the black.

“Fully recovering to the black is quite a challenge, (but) if we can actually reduce the amount of losses we record (this year) compared to 2017, I think we should be able to have better results in 2019,” he told a press conference after the group’s annual general meeting here yesterday.

The group’s order book currently stands at RM333mil, surpassing the RM197.75mil secured in 2017.

Azmi said the bulk of the contracts secured this year were for two to three years, with the option for renewal extension of up to three years. Yesterday, the group announced it had secure short- and long-term OSV contracts worth RM226.08mil, comprising RM180mil from local O&G players, RM36mil from the Middle East, and the balance from local main contractors.

He said these contracts, of which delivery will start in August, would impact the group’s financials starting in September while the full impact would be seen in 2019. — Bernama