KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — EA Technique (M) Bhd’s shares were up 1.5 sen to 42.5 sen with 1.01 million shares changing hands before the local market closed for lunch break today, supported by strong earnings visibility in the next three years.

Public Investment Bank Bhd (Public Invest) said the marine transportation and services company’s strong earnings was backed by a solid outstanding order book of RM930 million.

"We think EA Technique deserves to trade at higher multiples based on its robust earnings in financial years (FY) 2018-2019 and strong potential of securing new contracts from its RM1 billion tender book.

"Additionally, its business is defensive in nature with minimal risk exposures to oil price fluctuations, and the company possesses a relatively healthy balance sheet supported by its 76 per cent long-term contracts,” it said in a note today.

Public Invest said it was initiating coverage on the company with an "outperform” call and a target price of 73 sen based on a price-to-earnings ratio of 10x to FY19 forecast earnings per share. — Bernama