Steady As She Goes, Full Steam Ahead!

Samudera is in the business of providing container feeder shipping services between the deep-harbor "hub" ports and the outlying "spoke" ports. Singapore continues to remain as the main "hub" port. Their feeder services connect the ports of South East Asia and the Indian Sub-continent with Singapore.

Samudera has further expanded its container feeder shipping network around other hubs, such as Colombo in the Indian Subcontinent and Dubai in the Middle East. Having established a wide feeder shipping network, they are able to provide inter-region and intra-region container shipping services to the end users. The volume of business from this segment has been continually growing due to a very focused approach.

Samudera, through its wholly owned subsidiary participates in the shipping of liquid & gas cargoes and dry bulk cargoes such as cement. The business in this segment is based on ownership of suitable vessels against medium to long-term contracts from reputable customers. Participation in this business segment has allowed Samudera to diversify and spread its business risks as well as benefit from a steady flow of earnings and cash due to the stable nature of such business.

Steady Growth

Blue = Revenue

Yellow = Earnings

On 31 August 2000, Samudera announced their half-year 2000 results. Revenue was up 12% to over S$200 million. Net profit increased 20% to S$10.3 million (EPS 2.22 cts). The stock price has had a range from S$0.87 to S$0.18 over the last several years, falling steadily from its peak in 1999 to its current price around 30 cents. They should earn around 4.5 cents/share for the full-year 2000 resulting in a trailing PE = 6.7.

For 5 straight years, Samudera has managed to grow their revenue and earnings by nearly 20% per year resulting in a PEG well below the 0.5 qualifier for small-cap Diamond companies.


Sage@wallstraits.com