KUALA LUMPUR: OSK Research is maintaining its Buy on Petra Perdana with a target price of RM1.77 based on the existing PER of 9x FY11 earnings.

“Currently, we understand that there are still a tussle between the 2 groups of Petra shareholders and hope of this being resolved soon. Otherwise, Petra faces the risk of losing out on new vessel contract awards to its listed peers like Alam Maritim and Tanjung Offshore,” it said on Wednesday, June 30.

OSK Research said however, going forward, should the internal strife be resolved, it believed Petra could possibly be the biggest beneficiary of new vessel contract awards.

The factors are because: 1) it has spare capacity, with an average utilization of below 50% now, and 2) deepwater projects like Gemusut should start first oil production in 2011 and Petra’s 10,000 to 12,000 brake horsepower vessels should come in handy here.