Mermaid Maritime today announced that it has entered into a letter of intent for the construction of two new jack-up rigs with Keppel Corp, under a proposed new entity “Asia Offshore Drilling Limited” (AOD). The contract is for US$360 million, which works out to about US$180 per rig, and is based on Keppel FELS proprietary Mod V-B class of jack-up rigs. Mermaid is in the process of seeking other investors to form a JV under AOD, and will likely be the major shareholder of the new entity.
We have talked about Mermaid’s huge cash reserves, and the company has now indicated its intent to invest in new rigs to form an offshore drilling entity, likely focused in the Asian region. Is the price paid too high? We dug out old contract values for similar (or identical) Mod V-B class jack-up rigs from Keppel Corp:
On a price basis, the US$180 million per rig price tag appears substantially lower (a 30.5% discount) compared to the US$259 million average paid by other customers from 2005 to 2010. Relative to the price of WTI Crude oil (taken as a simple ratio of rig price in USD millions to oil price in USD), the low ratio for the AOD deal suggests that Mermaid got a good deal on this one. We are slightly puzzled by the disparity in the contract value; the rig appears to be of the same make (under Keppel FELS’ Class B design) as others detailed in prior contracts. With oil prices above US$80, we would also assume that Keppel Corp would have more pricing power.
On a price basis, the US$180 million per rig price tag appears substantially lower (a 30.5% discount) compared to the US$259 million average paid by other customers from 2005 to 2010. Relative to the price of WTI Crude oil (taken as a simple ratio of rig price in USD millions to oil price in USD), the low ratio for the AOD deal suggests that Mermaid got a good deal on this one. We are slightly puzzled by the disparity in the contract value; the rig appears to be of the same make (under Keppel FELS’ Class B design) as others detailed in prior contracts. With oil prices above US$80, we would also assume that Keppel Corp would have more pricing power.
We own both Keppel Corp and Mermaid Maritime in our portfolio, and read this as a positive development for Mermaid, as the company has now indicated its intent to deploy cash in an area within its expertise. The price paid also appears cheap in comparison with other similar rig contracts. While it looks like Keppel Corp makes out worse on this one, the deal will add to Keppel Corp’s rapidly declining order book, and the positive sentiment associated with the contract is possibly more important than the associated profit.
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