Bumi Armada jumps to highest since end-Nov

As at June 30, 2018, the group had total assets of RM18.22bil.

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Bumi Armada jumped to 22 sen on Friday the highest since end-November last year, after CIMB Equities Research expected its pending US$380mil loan to be refinanced.

At 4pm, it was up six sen to 22 sen. There were 445.34 million shares done.

The FBM KLCI rose 5.39 points or 0.32% to 1,688.36. Turnover was 2.35 billion shares valued at RM1.45bil. There were 425 gainers, 388 losers and 348 counters unchanged.

CIMB Equities Research is retaining its Add recommendation for Bumi Armada with an unchanged sum-of-parts based target price of 70 sen with the key rerating catalyst being closure in the refinancing negotiations.

The research house said on Friday Bumi Armada's difficult debt refinancing talks with banks are still ongoing; “we reckon that the probability of banks calling a default is low”.

It said other positives include the potential to secure a new subsea contract at the Caspian Sea, and the outcome of the Australian court hearing by May 2019F.

CIMB Research said Bumi Armada continues to negotiate for an extension to the May 2019F repayment deadline for US$380mil worth of corporate term loans with a consortium of banks. 

These loans were originally taken to fund the acquisition of Offshore Support Vessels (OSV) and to repay the project financing of the prematurely-terminated Armada Claire FPSO contract.