Shades of Keppel's big 2020 O&M losses in Sembmarine's dour loss guidance for 2021

Sembmarine's larger-than-expected H1 2021 loss raises the question of whether it has done enough to consolidate its operations

Ben Paul

Published Mon, Jul 19, 2021 · 05:50 AM

Mark to Market

REMEMBER the time one of Singapore's leading offshore and marine (O&M) companies spewed so much red ink that Temasek Holdings backed out of plans to raise its stake in its public-listed parent?

No, I'm not referring to S51 : S51 0% (Sembmarine) that - barely a fortnight after announcing a S$1.5 billion rights issue supported by Temasek and DBS Bank - indicated on July 12 its loss for H1 2021 will be in the region of the S$583 million loss it incurred for the whole of FY2020.

I'm talking about the O&M division of BN4 : BN4 0% that reported a net loss of S$959 million in H1 2020 mainly due to S$890 million of impairments for contract assets, receivables, stocks and investments.