KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 15): Eversendai Corp Bhd's foray into oil and gas (O&G) structure construction is seen as a major contributor to group earnings, executive chairman and managing director Tan Sri A K Nathan said.

In a press release today, A K Nathan said Eversendai (fundamental score: 0.75; valuation score: 1.2) had set the foundation to secure more O&G contracts.

“We are positive that all our efforts and initiatives that have been set in place would lead to more opportunities for the group to secure new contracts on a global scale.

“We anticipate our foray into this sector to be a significant contributor to Eversendai group’s earnings in time to come,” he said.

Eversendai is building liftboats for clients in the O&G sector. A K Nathan said Eversendai's wholly-owned unit Eversendai Offshore RMC FZE had completed the keel laying for two liftboats.

He said the keel laying signified the commencement of construction of the vessels, respectively named Aryan and Arjun.

These vessels are expected to be delivered in 2016.

“Our vessels are largely built in a series of pre-fabricated, complete hull sections rather than being built around a single keel.

“The event recognised as the keel laying is the first joining of modular components, or the lowering of the first module into place in the building dock,” it said.

The keel laying ceremony was held at Eversendai Offshore’s water-front yard in RAK Maritime City in the United Arab Emirates.

At 12.30pm, Eversendai shares rose two sen or 4% to 53 sen, bringing its market capitalisation to RM410.2 million.

The stock had fallan 32% this year, underperforming the FBM KLCI's 1% decline.

(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.)