A NEW name, a new corporate culture and new shareholders - all these are resulting in a renewed business and potentially new contracts being secured. That's the message Centillion Environment & Recycling Ltd is sending eight months after its restructuring in October last year, when white knights Equation Corp (formerly Heshe Holdings Ltd) and businessman Oei Hong Leong brought the company out of judicial management.
The electronics waste recycler has since taken great pains to shed off its image as the beleaguered Citiraya Industries Holdings, the company that lost most of its clients since January 2005 in the wake of criminal investigations of some of its senior executives. Barely a month after taking over, the new management produced its first report card - a joint venture with the waste management arm of French-based environmental solutions provider Veolia Environnement, to process and recycle electronic waste materials in Singapore.
Centillion says this joint venture, called Centeonyx, is set to leverage on Veolia's strong European and Asian clientele network and will contribute 30 per cent of its group revenue by next year.
'Today the morale is a lot higher, people are looking forward. We have the French (partners) coming in to help us to run the whole JV, so things are turning on,' Centillion chairman Eddie Chng told BT recently.
He noted Centillion has since been 'busy hiring people, stepping up its standard operating procedures and redefining internal security control', to ensure there would be no repeat of the lack of internal checks that led to Citiraya's downfall.
Nevertheless, investors have yet to warm to the stock. Since its relisting last October after a 20-month suspension, the share price has fallen by some 85 per cent, as the market saw it as grossly overvalued and was unsure of the company's prospects. Currently hovering around 16 cents, the stock price is still way above the 0.84 cent that Equation Corp and Mr Oei paid for each Centillion share.
But there are enough fundamental reasons to believe why the new Centillion deserves a closer look. E-waste recycling is a global business with little seasonality. With product life cycles of digital devices getting shorter, the growing e-waste generated presents tremendous business opportunities for Centillion. In particular, it is keen to penetrate the markets of Europe and the United States.
In Europe, all 25 EU member states have legislated the mandatory take-back programme for the collection, recycling and disposal of waste electrical devices, while there is rising pressure on state governments in the US to legislate pro-environment laws promoting recycling. Certain states like Maine and California have implemented an advanced recycling fee, where the state government pays the recycler to clear e-waste.
These initiatives guarantee a steady and growing stream of e-waste for recycling. Centillion has revealed it wants to enter the US through partnerships with domestic recycling players, and is currently in talks with two US firms for potential joint venture or M&A. With a recycling plant in Wales, UK, it hopes to secure contracts in Europe by leveraging on Veolia's European network.
Centillion is also setting up a plant in Wuxi in China to capitalise on the growing e-waste tonnage generated from some rapidly growing Asian economies. The new plant is expected to contribute to group revenue in 2008.
With Centillion's operations being up and running again, the overhanging question now is when new contracts will start streaming in. Even with the macro-environment looking favourably for Centillion, is it able to win the uphill battle of persuading former customers to return to the fold?
For now, Centillion is still recycling e-waste from its own inventory. But it has recently started ramping up its recycling capacity in Singapore to raise it by 15 times to 6,000 tonnes per annum by the end of 2007, which suggests that it may be making headways in its talks with potential clients. The months ahead are crucial for Centillion as it seeks to secure an import licence from the National Environment Agency in four to 12 weeks to import e-waste for recycling.
Prudent investors may still want to wait and see if earnings visibility improves before chasing up the stock again. After all, it is unclear when Centillion may turn around financially. But recent disclosures by Centillion on its progress and future plans could be a harbinger of more good things to come.
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