Improving order outlook keeps SembMarine at 'buy' despite 4Q provisioning of everything but the kitchen sink

SINGAPORE (Feb 22): CIMB is maintaining its “add” call on Sembcorp Marine (SMM) at a higher target price of $3.01, which is now based on a 20-year average of 2.5 times book value.

This comes even as the group’s 4Q net loss of $34 million came in wider than that of consensus and the research house’s forecasts, which was attributed by the management on weak operating leverage, negative variation order and cost overrun for delivered & existing floaters.