Singapore:Viking O&M Plans to Increase its International Profit by 60 Percent

Viking Offshore & Marine (O&M) is aiming to grow its international revenues to 60 per cent of its overall sales by next year and is also looking to set up operations in Brazil, which is widely seen as a growth market.

Viking O&M, now a relatively smaller player in the O&M sector, is hoping to ride on the success of larger industry players such as Keppel Fels and Sembcorp Marine to expand its international presence, said its chairman, Mr Andy Lim.

The Catalist-listed company installs heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) systems on vessels and oil rigs, and currently has an order book of $37 million — which runs up till next year.

Apart from plans to break into Brazil, Viking said it has also made significant progress with potential clients in India and Vietnam.

“We have done many projects successfully for Keppel and Sembcorp Marine. As a result, we have a good working relationship with their project teams,” said Mr Lim.

“Now that Keppel has gone in a big way to South America, specifically in Brazil, we are working with them to explore how we can support them in HVACR and this may entail setting up physical operations in Brazil.”

Viking O&M was formerly known as Novena Holdings and was renamed after Mr Lim used it to acquire Viking Airtech in January for $44 million.

With an aim of becoming the leading HVACR systems provider in the global O&M market, Viking is expecting its overseas businesses to make up 60 per cent of its revenues by next year from 40 per cent in 2009.

Mr Lim also intends to do this through the new key business of refurbishing ships and oil rigs globally, which he believes is still an untapped market because some 80 per cent of the world’s oil rigs are more than 20 years old.

“We are now exploring with a ship owner in South-east Asia to refurbish their fleet of ships. There are over 150 ships and this whole refurbishment programme takes two to three years,” he added.

As for possible mergers and acquisitions, Viking O&M said it is actively exploring adding more services to its international value chain, such as fire safety, outfitting accommodation quarters and explosion-proofing.

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Source: Jo-ann Huang,April 19, 2010;