Viking Q3 earnings down

CATALIST-listed Viking Offshore & Marine, which announced its third-quarter financial results yesterday, has entered into separate strategic agreements with two co-founders of Labroy Marine in a move to venture into the mainstream offshore rig-building and rig charter market.

For the July-September quarter, Viking reported a 37 per cent fall to $227,000 in net profit attributable to shareholders, from the year-ago period's $362,000. The latter included $165,000 from discontinued operations. Revenue from continuing operations rose 9 per cent to $15.4 million.

Viking said yesterday that it is partnering Singaporean rig building veteran Chan Kwan Bian to construct a drilling jack-up rig at a cost of about US$180 million. The rig is a cantilever drilling jack-up CJ46-X100-D GustoMSC designed for use in waterdepth up to 114 metres and can accommodate 120 men during operation.