Brokers Hargreave Hale gave the following Valuation for HMY

VALUATION
The nearest comparisons to this Group are Sondex, trading on a current year multiple of 14 and Weir Group which typically trades on multiples of 12 plus. We would argue that Hamworthys prospects are brighter than both these companies in view of the strong order book and the global positioning. Fully taxed earnings of 13p this year and 16.5 p for the 2005/6 end March, suggests a current year PE of 9.9x and a prospective PE of 7.8x. There is a prospective yield in excess of 4%. If trading on a similar PER to Sondex the shares would be valued at in excess of 180p. We would argue that a premium to Sondex is justifiable, in particular because of the potential ramp up to sales as a result of the new product pipeline now gaining client acceptance in what is in any event one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

"Shares" Article relating to Hamworthy (HMY) posted below for info.

With a following wind these shares should double over the next year or so.

Some catty folk in the City say the flotation last month by Collins Stewart
could have been handled better, i.e. at a higher price. It was certainly over
subscribed but the rating is half that of similar oil sector service companies
including Sondex.

Couldnt agree more Jim and for such a growth story I feel they are realatively cheap on a rolling P/e of just over 15, which for a growth stock is too cheap. They should be at least on a P/E of 20 to 22.

cheers GF.

Tradewinds...."Imports of LNG to the US climbed 29% to 625bn cbf in 2004, as compared to the previous year, according to the US energy dept's office of fossil energy. LNG accounted for 3% of the country's energy supply. The energy dept says LNG IMPORTS ARE PROJECTED TO ACCOUNT FOR 20% OF US SUPPLY BY 2020"
Huge growth story here!

Also...

"...last week Chevtex led Gorgon LNG project in Australia finally secured its first sale of product. All of this is likely to propel the oil major to make decisions on its LNG transport strategy. Some in the industry have put the company's LNG-carrier requirements at a huge 20 ships. Chevtex is the lead stakeholder in Gorgon, which is pursuing sales to the US west coast and China. Chevtex is also partner in Angola LNG and Nigeria's Brass LNG, both of which are schedualed for start up in late 2008-2009"

It looks like Qatar started the LNG story...but there are several other projects...
Gorgon (Australia)
Angola LNG (Angola)
Brass LNG (Nigeria)
Gazprom (Russia)
Tangguh (Indonesia)
Yemen LNG (Yemen)
All of these plus the ones i have probably forgot, will all require many ships, and the more different production locations that there are, and trades that are set up, the more likely a spot market will be created...and when that happens, the fleet is set to expand hugely. IMO all good news for HMY.

Well done Paul it just keeps getting better. I really believe in this one, unlike some of my other holdings. Oh well you can't win them all.

MS

Yes excelent Research Paul.

cheers GF.

One of our posters on here was recently plugging Star Energy and their plans for Natural Gas storage. Take a look at EDR - they announced their plans for LNG storage and trading in an RNS on 21 April. I'd post it here but its far too long. A most interesting read and further confirmation that LNG is going to become a major factor in the international energy scene. Not directly related to HMY, but another part of the total LNG story.

I agree its a long news release but here is one section that reflects what is going on in the market for importing and storing LNG.....

Commenting on the agreement, Egdon's Joint Managing Director, Andrew Hindle,
said 'The move into gas storage is a very exciting development for Egdon. UK
production of gas is expected to decline significantly over the next few years
and this will result in a commensurate growth of gas imports to meet demand.
Over the past 40 years, periods of high demand for gas have been met by using
peak production capacity available from the North Sea. With supplies
increasingly coming from further afield, gas storage facilities look set to
become a vital resource in the gas supply marketplace. Egdon has used its
extensive knowledge of the geology of the UK onshore to identify the potential
site at Portland to participate in this emerging growth business within the UK
oil and gas industry. It is currently anticipated that the initial working
volume will be between 10 and 20 billion cubic feet and the first cavity on the
site should become operational in 2008'.

Potentially good news for HMY

Could be a very interesting next two weeks for HMY if we get any further news on these LNG contracts.

cheers GF.

I picked up the end of a discussion on Business news at lunch time talking about the over supply of gas and that there could be a gas bubble over the next couple of years at a time when LNG is being imported. The commentator did say however tjhat if that happened - it would be easy and economic to transfer LNG across to other companies such as USA using massive tankers that were coming on stream. Good news for HMY again - did anyone else pick up the full story ?

Baza

Was this on TV then Baza?.

cheers GF.

Still below the tactical BUY price of CityWire (230p)

cheers GF.

There was much the same story in Monday's edition of the Times. Basically by the end of this decade there will be more than enough LNG coming into the UK to allay any fears of shortages. The good news is that it not only the UK looking at LNG imports - in the USA alone imports of LNG are rising fast and many other countries are looking at LNG replacing oil in power stations to reduce emissions. From HMY's point of view its all good news - ships, terminals and storage sites have to be built and all require a range of gas handling equipment.

GF - yes it was on Business Lunch presented by Adrian Childs?

An interesting general article in Llyods list today, with a potentially very good news highlighted at the bottom. Our much awaited news on the tenders could be out soon!!


"QATARS liquefied natural gas exports total about 20m tonnes a year, but this is scheduled to increase to 30m tonnes by 2007 and to approximately 77m tonnes by 2012.

A huge amount of investment will be made in new tonnage to meet this LNG export requirement. It has been estimated that Qatar will need to order more than 50 LNG carriers over the next few years to meet its needs.

Already this investment programme is under way. Earlier this year, for instance, Qatar Gas Transportation Co and the New York company Overseas Shipholding Group signed a contract for the largest LNG carriers ordered so far.

A total of four 216,000 cu m Q-flex vessels will be constructed at Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries for delivery in 2007-08 and will be chartered for 25 years to Qatar Liquefied Gas Co.

Qatar Gas Transport Co, known as Nikilat, is a shareholding company set up to export Qatari gas to Asia, Europe and North America.

With a declared capital of Riyals6.5bn ($1.8bn), 50% of the companys capital has now been released for general subscription.

Speaking at the Doha conference on natural gas earlier this year Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Minister of Energy and Industry, said: The fact that Nakilat will be leasing the ships to Qatargas and RasGas for 25 years ensures risk-free operations.

In addition, this major Qatari milestone project will create wide opportunities, including the training of Qataris in gas transport and maintenance.

The LNG trades, not surprisingly also represent a focal point for Qatars biggest shipping company, Qatar Shipping, a privately owned venture which at present operates a fleet of 18 ships totalling around 800,000 dwt.

The company took delivery of five new 138,000 cu m LNG ships last year and has a further four 145,000 cu m carriers on order for delivery between May this year and next April to carry LNG from the Rasgas II plant.

Det Norske Veritas has been heavily involved in LNG and other newbuilding projects stemming from Qatar and is continuing to develop its presence in the country to support this sector.

Two more surveyors are expected to be stationed in Doha by the end of this year, says Eivind Grostad, regional general manager.

With the great potential and rapid expansion of shipping and related ind- ustry in Qatar, we expect a gradual increase of manning in the years to come, he adds.

DNV ANTICIPATES THAT AN IMPORTANT TENDER FOR 12 LARGE NEW LNG CARRIERS WILL COME OUT SOON.

Furthermore, says Mr Grostad: There may also be some other very interesting projects which may materialise over the next six months in Qatar as well.

Paulgrip - thanks for that excellent piece.

Cheers, Madison

Yes excelent piece I hope HMY get a piece of the action on the tender for the 12 ships.

cheers GF.

Paulgrip you're the man. Well done and keep them coming.

MS

From the FT yesterday: see first and tenth paragraphs about LNG (how do you highlight paragraphs here, I have never understood that?).

Bush to support expansion of nuclear energy
By Andrew Ward in Washington
Published: April 27 2005 05:49 | Last updated: April 27 2005 05:49

President George W. Bush will on Wednesday throw his support behind a worldwide expansion of nuclear power and announce plans for a new generation of oil refineries and natural gas terminals in the US.


The proposals, which will be made in a speech in Washington, are designed to help ease the capacity constraints that have pushed energy prices to record highs this year. Mr Bush will call for Congress to work with the Department of Energy to reduce uncertainty surrounding regulatory approval for nuclear power plants, paving the way for the first expansion in nuclear power in the US for decades.

Senior White House officials said Mr Bush would also call for international co-operation to promote greater use of clean coal and nuclear power around the world to reduce stress on global energy markets.

In addition to increasing capacity, Mr Bush believes nuclear power can also be part of the solution to climate change because it does not produce the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Mr Bushs speech on Wednesday represents a wish list of initiatives he would like to see incorporated into energy legislation currently making its way through Congress. The House of Representatives passed an energy bill last week and the Senate is expected to start work on its version in the next few weeks before the two houses seek to agree the final legislation for Mr Bushs signature.

Energy has become a hot political issue in the US as fuel prices have surged and the country has become increasingly dependent on foreign oil and gas.

Officials said Mr Bush would set out his vision for tackling the root causes of todays high price environment through increased domestic energy production and processing, and use of technology to develop renewable energy sources and promote energy efficiency.

In the most novel proposal contained in Mr Bushs speech, officials said he would call for the construction of new oil refineries on former military bases, creating new jobs in communities hit by base closures while also easing the countrys acute shortage of refining capacity.

No new oil refineries have been built in the US since 1976 and existing facilities are struggling to cope with demand.

Officials said Mr Bush would also call on Congress to remove barriers to new liquefied natural gas terminals by giving federal authorities the power to override opposition to the facilities from states. The US needs more than the existing four terminals to handle surging imports of LNG.

Mr Bush was also expected to call for Congress to extend tax benefits for fuel-efficient cars to include clean diesel vehicles, in addition to the hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles which are already included. The incentive would be worth $2.5bn over 10 years, according to White House officials.

The combination of tax breaks for green cars with expansion of nuclear power and traditional fossil fuel supplies shows how Mr Bush is seeking to strike a balance between competing calls for increased energy capacity and energy conservation.

However, environmentalists are likely to argue the balance is too heavily in favour of the energy industry, which has close ties to Mr Bush and the Republican Party. Critics are particularly wary of Mr Bushs promotion of so-called clean coal technology, which still emits large amounts of greenhouse gases.ENDS

Cheers, Madison

Ill come back with the whole codes for HTML.

Here you are madison the codes for highlighting etc.

Can I use html in my posts?
There are 2 ways that this can be configured on a per board basis. If HTML is On then you will see HTML is On and you can use normal HTML in your posts.

[b] text [/b] = Makes the given text bold.
[email] joe@email.com [/email] = Makes the given email address clickable.
[i] text [/i] = Makes the given text italic.
[code] text [/code] = Surrounds the given text with pre tags.
[quote] text [/quote] = Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply.
[url] link [/url] = Makes the given url into a link.
[url=link] title [/url] = Makes the given title into a hyperlink pointing to link.

cheers GF.

Thanks GF, will try it out when I get a minute...

Cheers, Madison