ST Engineering's aerospace arm secures $600m in new orders in 3Q2013

Led by maintenance and retrofit contracts.

In a release, Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) announced that its aerospace arm, Singapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd (ST Aerospace) has secured new orders worth about $600m in the third quarter of 2013. The new orders involve projects ranging from airframe, component and engine maintenance, to commercial airline cabin retrofit and freighter conversions.

Included in the 3Q2013 contracts is an order of 17 passenger-to-freighter (PTF) conversions received from an international air freight carrier, bringing to 119 the total number of aircraft contracted for the Boeing 757-200 PTF conversion programme.

In the cabin interior business, ST Aerospace’s expertise in providing complete turn-key solutions has once again been affirmed with the clinching of a cabin reconfiguration project for two Boeing 767-300 airplanes for an Asian airliner. Another noteworthy achievement is the ownership of a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) awarded by the European Aviation Safety Agency for a full cabin retrofit programme involving six A330 aircraft for an international carrier.

In the third quarter, ST Aerospace redelivered a total of 245 aircraft for airframe maintenance and modification work. This is in addition to the five Boeing 757-200 converted freighters redelivered during the quarter. Besides airframe redeliveries, the aerospace sector processed 11,360 components, 59 landing gears, 57 engines and conducted 1,570 engine washes for both commercial and military customers.

ST Aerospace continues to strengthen its footprint by implementing market expansion strategies in the engine leasing and pilot training sectors. ST Aerospace’s wholly owned subsidiary, ST Aerospace Engines Pte Ltd (STA Engines) recently injected additional capital into its 50%-jointly controlled company Total Engines Asset Management Pte Ltd (TEAM). TEAM has placed out 10 engines to date. It has also expanded its leasing portfolio to include the International Aero Engines V2500 engine, on top of the CFM56 series engines.

On the development of the pilot training business, ST Aerospace’s commercial pilot training academy has been certified as a Type Rating Training Organisation by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). With this certification, ST Aerospace’s training academy will be able to provide aircraft type conversion training leading to CAAS type ratings, thus enriching its portfolio of training courses.

A fixed-based Airbus A320 FFT X™ - MPL simulator has also recently been commissioned at ST Aerospace’s training academy at Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore. This device - which features state-of-the-art technology and a fully type-specific cockpit - has been specially designed to support the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) Phase II training. ST Aerospace is the first in Singapore to develop the MPL programme.

The above developments are not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets per share and earnings per share of ST Engineering for the current financial year.