Local Singapore newspaper Business Times is reporting that struggling Sembcorp Marine is weighing up selling all or part of subsidiary PPL Shipyard.
“SembMarine is understood to have sought valuation for one or more of PPL Shipyard’s waterfront assets,” the newspaper reported today.
Sembcorp Marine, however, has denied the rumours.
In August this year Sembcorp Marine signed a sale and purchase agreement to buy the remaining 15% stake it did not already own in PPL Shipyard. PPL Shipyard designs, builds, repairs and upgrades oil rigs, ships and other vessels from its base in Singapore.
Sembcorp Marine first bought a 50% stake in the yard in 2001, followed by the acquisition for another 35% in 2003.
With orders for new rigs at their lowest level in a generation, Sembcorp Marine has come under pressure this year. It recently offloaded its 30% stake in China’s Cosco Shipyard Group.
