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Non-Tech : Hvide Marine HMAR - High Growth, Undervalued -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert T. Quasius who wrote (363)	4/27/1998 9:57:00 AM
From: Jack Be Quick	Respond to of 547

INTERVIEW-Hvide sees strong Asian growth Reuters Story - April 27, 1998 07:58 By Azlin Ahmad SINGAPORE, April 27 (Reuters) - U.S.-based Hvide Marine Inc sees strong growth in oil and gas exploration in Asia despite the region's economic problems, facilitating expansion in the area, a top official said on Monday. "The Asia offshore oil and gas industry is still a very strong, very dynamic industry and we do not see a crisis at all," chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Erik Hvide told Reuters in an interview. Hvide Marine Inc provides marine support and transportation services, serving primarily the energy and chemical business. CEO Hvide said he expected Asia's contribution to the company to increase significantly over the next few years. Southeast Asia is now a bit shy of 10 percent of the conpany's business, Hvide said. "In the next five years, it could be around 25 percent." "We've gone from a tiny, tiny toehold in Asia in 1992 to 19 vessels right now," he said. Instead, Asia's economic problems may have been beneficial from the standpoint of his company's business, as the growth previously was too rapid, Hvide said. He said Asia's demands on equipment and personnel were greater or risked becoming greater than what the industry could supply. "So now we have a better balance between the two," he said. CEO Hvide, son of the founder of the company, is to open the regional base office in Singapore on Tuesday. He said the Asian financial problems may have led to a slight slowdown in exploration activities by smaller, independent companies. But most of the major oil companies and larger national oil companies which are the core of Hvide's business were still proceeding with their upstream plans in Asia, he said. "We don't see a slakening in the demand for our services," he said. "We have not seen any impact on our business at this time, and we have all of our vessels fully employed," he added. Currently, Hvide has a presence in Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, and China, and was looking at Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan as potential new areas. Apart from providing support services for offshore exploration, the company was also looking at expanding its business in ports and harbours in Asia, Hvide said. "Ports, harbours and the terminalling side of the business is an area that we're putting a lot of focus on these days," he said. "We think that a new technology that we've developed and petented, the new design tractor tug, is going to be a very potent tool in expanding our terminalling activities," he added. For 1998, Hvide projected that its revenues would almost double to approximately $400 million, the main drivers being the acquisitions the company completed in late 1997 and early 1998, and increases in day rates of their main offshore markets. In 1997, Hvide reported revenues of $210 million, up from 109 million the previous year. -- Singapore Newsroom (65) 870-3082; Fax (65) 776-8112 -- Email: singapore.newsroomreuters.com

To: Robert T. Quasius who wrote (363)	4/28/1998 2:57:00 PM
From: Ian Achterkirch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 547

I understand the debt, however, they have done pretty well from the earnings standpoint. Zack's shows the last 4 qtr's earnings vs estimates; the estimates are from June 1997 when they beat estimates by 12%. They missed by 2.2% or $.01 Sept. They met estimates of $.56 in Dec. Prior to that I do not show estimates. They earned $.29 in Dec of 1996. These guys have had very steady earnings growth and have a solid record with analysts. Their revenue growth is outstanding. If they continue doing business this way, the debt will soon be behind them. It sounds like Asia is going well and their new Tugs should solidify revenue and their positions in those ports. I am having a hard time understanding why this stock to underperform. Does anyone else think that Erik's press release is a preview to an upside earnings surprise? We have to get this stock moving. It should not take much as the company does not have that much float.