Keppel O&M faces challenging prospects

IT may be that Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) is able to "draw a line" under its corruption scandal in Brazil - as Keppel Corporation chief Loh Chin Hua has put it, but the road to recovery is likely to remain an uphill one.

On top of having to take on stricter compliance controls in its operations and working to restore the trust of its stakeholders, Keppel O&M still has to deal with a myriad of issues on the business front, including rising competition and a diminished manpower and engineering capacity.

And then there is the possibility of Keppel O&M being sidelined, now that the larger Keppel group appears to be focusing more on the property business - its biggest contributor to earnings in recent years.