KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): Ship builder TAS Offshore Bhd saw its third financial quarter ended Feb 28, 2015 (3QFY15) net profit fall 93.5% on-year to RM676,000, from RM10.46 million a year ago, which drove its earnings per share (EPS) down to 0.38 sen from 5.95 sen, on lower revenue.

Revenue for 3QFY15 came in 34.93% lower at RM74.37 million, compared with RM114.29 million in the previous corresponding quarter, its filing to Bursa Malaysia today showed.

Cumulatively, the group’s net profit for the nine-month period (9MFY15) was down 60.85% to RM10.28 million, from RM26.25 million in 9MFY14; while revenue grew 4.66% to RM201.97 million, from RM192.98 million.

TAS Offshore (fundamental: 1.65; valuation: 1.8) said its earnings declined mainly due to changes in specifications for vessel during the current quarter.

On prospects, the group said it recognises there were negative factors in the industry, such as the major slump in crude oil price over the past few months, capital expenditure cuts by oil majors and substantial reduction of deep sea drilling activities.

Nevertheless, it said it expects oil prices to stabilise in the medium to long term.

“We are cautiously optimistic in the long term outlook — that demands for both the offshore support vessels with higher technical specifications suitable for deep sea operation, and offshore support vessels for the enhanced oil recovery projects which allow optimum extraction of oil resources, will return,” the group said.

Hence, it remains “positive” about its prospects.

TAS Offshore fell half sen or 0.67% to 74 sen today, which gives it a market capitalisation of RM130.09 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)