AIO Finance Analysis

Banks such as DBS Group, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and United Overseas Bank may be in focus after a record loss at insurer AIG exacerbated fears of more write-downs in the financial sector.

Stocks and factors to watch:

Goldman Sachs has cut the target price of conglomerate SembCorp Industries' shares to S$4.60 from S$5.70 but kept its "neutral" call, citing weak earnings in its utilities division and lack of positive catalysts.

SembCorp Industries posted a 42 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on demand for utilities and rig building, and said it was eyeing acquisitions for growth.

Oversea-Chinese Banking said it has withdrawn its offer for commodities and property firm Straits Trading

MapleTree Logistics Trust said it has agreed to buy a warehouse for S$26.5 million ($19 million).

Swiber Holdings said its fourth-quarter net profit jumped more than five times to $20.2 million.

Source: Reuters

Chartered Semiconductor

Valuation

Our target price of S$0.90 continues to be based on a 2008E P/BV of 1.0-1.3x, at a slight premium to our valuation for UMC due to CHRT’s improved technological edge. Benchmarking CHRT to UMC is justified in our view because the gap between the two companies in operating margins, ROE, weighted average tech node, and breakeven utilization is narrowing. We use P/BV as our primary valuation method due to the cyclicality of the industry, and earnings could be absent during downcycles.

Risks

We rate CHRT Medium Risk based on our quantitative risk-rating system, which tracks 260-day historical share-price volatility. Upside risks that could cause the shares to trade above our target price include stronger-thanexpected PC and handset demand, faster-than-expected inventory build by OEM/EMS customers, a better-than-expected wafer pricing environment, and faster-than-expected tech migration to 0.09um at 12" fab.

Mapletree Logistics Trust

4Q07 results above expectations. Revenue was up 49.9% yoy to S$40.3m while distributable profit was up 67.8% yoy to S$19.7m. Full-year revenue was S$141.7m with a distributable profit of S$71.8m and DPU of 6.57cts, which is 2% above our ‘s and consensus’ forecast. The strong performance in the last quarter was attributed to increased revenue from nine acquisitions completed in the quarter. 2007

Operating expenses were significantly below expectations as a result of economies of scale. As at 31 Dec 07, MLT’s portfolio reached S$2.379bn, with revaluation gains of S$125.58m. Target price lowered to S$1.36 from S$1.65.

CapitaCommercial Trust, Singapore's third-biggest property trust by market value, said on Thursday its fourth-quarter distributable income rose 14.5 percent due to higher rentals from its portfolio of office properties.

The trust said it earned net distributable income of S$32.3 million ($22.5 million) for the three months ended December, higher than the S$28.2 million it had earned in the year-ago period. CapitaCommercial Trust, 30-percent owned by Southeast Asia's biggest developer CapitaLand, will pay unit-holders 2.33 Singapore cents per unit for the quarter.

Cosco said it has won $422 million worth of shipbuilding contracts. The firm said in a statement that the contracts are expected to have a postive impact on the company's earnings for the fiscal year ending December 31 2008.

Singapore-listed heart stent maker Biosensors said Thursday that it has appointed Robert Michael Kleine as president and chief executive with immediate effect. He replaces Lu Yoh Chie who will continue as chairman, the company said in a statement.