By MOK FEI FEI

ENERGY services provider Mer-maid Maritime plans to buy moreequipment to meet growing de-mand from the oil and gas sector.

Chief executive ChalermchaiMahagitsiri told a briefing yester-day that its assets are fully uti-lised, with an order book amount-ing to US$650 million (S$816 mil-lion).

The Thailand-based, Singa-pore-listed firm charters outships and rigs for drilling, mainte-nance and cable-laying for clientsin the oil and gas industry.

Two subsea vessels will join itsfleet next month and it plans to in-vest in two tender rigs so it cantake on more contracts and enternew markets. The rigs will re-place the two that have beenaround for more than 30 years.

The company may also com-mit to a new jack-up rig.

“We’re a Thai company butstill we haven’t done anythingmuch there because we have noassets to provide to the Thai mar-ket and you know Asia is a hugemarket,” Mr Mahagitsiri said.

Mermaid Maritime is ventur-ing into frontier markets like Iranand West Africa, particularly Ni-geria.

Mr Paul Whiley, the firm’smanaging director of the subseadivision in the Middle East andNorth Africa, noted that major oilcompanies are already in those rel-atively more unstable zones.

“In exchange for putting our-selves in that part of the world, re-covery is better, so you chargemore, which is why we look to begainful in those areas,” he said.

Mermaid Maritime is continu-ing its turnaround after years ofdecline. On Wednesday, it report-ed that net profit for the year toSept 30 was US$15.7 million, 389

per cent more than the US$3.2million reported in the same peri-od a year ago.

The profit posted in 2012 wasthe first after years of turbulence.

Mr Mahagitsiri attributed theimprovement to the new manage-ment team put in place last yearfollowing a deal that saw his fami-ly take a substantial stake inThoresen Thai Agencies (TTA).

TTA owns 41.8 per cent of Mer-maid Maritime, making it the larg-est shareholder.

“Before, each subsidiary didits own thing. But now, we syner-gise with all the units and provideone-stop solutions to our clients,securing long-term contracts,”said Mr Mahagitsiri, who onceworked as former Thai prime min-ister Thaksin Shinawatra’s aide.

Mermaid Maritime sharesclosed 2.5 cents higher at 42 centsyesterday.

feimok@sph.com.sg

By GRACE CHNGSENIOR CORRESPONDENT

SMALL and medium-sized enter-prises (SMEs) will form the coreof a new $62 million biomedicalhub at Tuas Biomedical Park, as acomplement to some global indus-try giants already based there.

Multinational biomedical gi-ants such as Pfizer, Roche andAmgen will benefit from better ef-ficiency as they rely on servicesoffered by the SMEs.

The biomedical SMEs offer sup-port services such as plant fabrica-tion, maintenance and equipmentcalibration, said Senior Ministerof State for Trade and Industryand National Development Lee YiShyan.

Mr Lee, who officiated at aground-breaking ceremony forthe facility yesterday, said having

the SMEs in the park meant sup-port services such as processequipment and laboratory sup-plies could be pooled.

This will boost efficiency formultinationals at the park.

The eight-storey JTC BioMedOne will include a “vendors hub”as a resource for biomedicalSMEs based there.

This will offer specialisedequipment testing, maintenanceand other support services.

The building will be completedin the first quarter of next year.

The new hub is a joint initia-tive of JTC and the bio-pharma-ceutical manufacturers’ advisorycommittee (BMAC), whose mem-bers include Abbot, Pfizer andGlaxoSmithKline.

Mr Lee said the biomedical in-dustry is a star manufacturing per-former.

In the last decade, the indus-try’s manufacturing output hasnearly quintupled from $6 billionto $29 billion.

This industry also has the high-est value-add among all manufac-turing clusters, at $977,000 perworker with 70 per cent of jobsheld by Singaporeans.

More than 7,100 researchersare involved in biomedical re-search here today.

The Government will supportSMEs in participating in thisgrowing industry.

For example, Spring Singaporehas set aside $60 million in thisyear’s Budget for a programmecalled Partnerships for CapabilityTransformation, to help SMEspartner large firms to upgrade ca-pabilities, transfer knowledge ordevelop and pilot innovations.

chngkeg@sph.com.sg

By JONATHAN KWOK

BEER maker Asia Pacific Brew-eries (APB) introduced a fruityvariant to its flagship TigerBeer yesterday – the first prod-uct launch since it was takenover by Dutch brewerHeineken.

Tiger Radler, as the brew iscalled, is a mix of Tiger Beerand lemon juice. It will be onthe shelves of some supermar-kets today and will soon beavailable in Malaysia.

The formula has been suc-cessful for parent companyHeineken, which launched itsfirst Radler beer, Gosser Natur,in Austria in 2007. Radler in-volves mixing lemon juice withan existing brew to give it a re-freshing kick.

The term harks back to 1922when a Munich pub owner al-most ran out of stock afterhordes of thirsty cyclists de-scended on his watering hole.

He mixed his beer with lem-on juice and declared that themixture was deliberately invent-ed for the cyclists.

The drink was eventuallycalled Radler Mass.

Heineken has introduced Ra-dler in 27 markets, successfullymixing lemon juice with its Am-

stel and Foster’s beers.Heineken and APB started

discussing the possibility oflaunching a Tiger Radler prod-uct in the middle of this year,said Mr Rene de Monchy, headof marketing at APB Singapore.

They spent a few months de-veloping the product, includingdoing taste and concept testswith local drinkers, he told TheStraits Times on the sidelinesof yesterday’s launch in Demp-

sey Road.Mr Cyril Charzat, sales and

marketing director at HeinekenAsia Pacific, said: “For us, itwas obvious that the biggest in-novation Heineken has deliv-ered over the world over thelast few years should land inSingapore on the Tiger brandfirst.”

Capacity expansion at APB’sJalan Ahmad Ibrahim breweryhas helped the product to be

made here.Mr de Monchy expects the

launch of Radler to grow over-all Tiger Beer sales volumes inSingapore by 4 to 6 per centnext year.

“Tiger Beer is a big volume(seller) in Singapore becauseit’s the market leader, and 4 to6 per cent growth on a big baseis quite an aggressive number,”he said. “People who are lesskeen on beer will come inthrough a product like this.”

Mr Charzat said lemon juicewill not be added to theHeineken brew, noting thatthat product will stick to its“unchanged, unique recipe”.

It is not the first time thereis a variation to Tiger Beer:APB previously tweaked thebrewing process to createbrews such as Tiger Crystal.

Heineken and Singapore’sFraser and Neave (F&N) hadrun APB as a joint venturesince 1931. But in July last year,Heineken dramatically movedto take over all of APB, afterparties linked to Thai Beveragefounder Charoen Sirivadhanab-hakdi bought stakes in F&Nand APB. Heineken’s takeoverof APB was completed earlierthis year.

jonkwok@sph.com.sg

(Second from left) Mr Carlos Pereira, site head at Novartis Singapore Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and co-chairman ofBMAC; Mr Heah Soon Poh, assistant CEO of cluster development group 1 at JTC Corp; Mr Png Cheong Boon, CEO of JTCCorp; Mr Lee Yi Shyan; and Mr Dennis Tan, director of the biomedical and chemicals cluster at JTC Corp, at theground-breaking ceremony for JTC BioMed One. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Mr Rene de Monchy (left), head of marketing at APB Singapore, and MrCyril Charzat, sales and marketing director at Heineken Asia Pacific, withthe new Tiger Radler beer. PHOTO: APB SINGAPORE

They willoffer supportservices toindustrygiants there

Mermaid Maritime plans moreequipment to meet demand

New hub for SMEs atTuas Biomedical Park

APB adds a fruity twist to Tiger Beer

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