the stock market ?

When we first had the flood in Orchard Road near the Ion, I was out of town and thus wasnt affected by it.  I had to drive through the more recent flood earlier this week but was lucky that I was doing my early morning school run and the flooding in Thomson Road was still low and passable to traffic. 

The pictures below show some scenes of flooding in Singapore.

News reports and comments from Government leaders attribute the flood to unusual and unexpected weather conditions.  Are these caused by Global warming - nobody knows.   We have had comments from both the Prime Minister and MM that floods cannot be totally stopped.   Flooding in Singapore has now become almost a weekly affair.  When I left home this morning again on a school run, I was anticipating flooding - fortunately there was none.

The frequency of the flooding seems to suggest that our existing drainage system could be inadequate if the new weather patterns persist.  While the Government cannot totally prevent any flooding, it is likely to relook at existing drainage capacity and ascertain whether its sufficient.   This could lead to the award of new contracts for drainage works which need to be done on an urgent basis.

Possible beneficiaries of these new works, if they materialise, would be the public sector construction companies especially those doing PUB work. Two listcos that I know that do a lot of public sector work are Hock Lian Seng and OKP.  The former does mainly LTA work, ie roads and MRTs.  OKP on the other hand is more broad based a quick check with their 2009 annual report revealed that the PUB is one of their customers.

So if we find the Government announcing and setting aside money to upgrade the current drainage system.....then look out for these construction companies such as OKP as possible beneficiaries.  I havent looked at OKP as a stock yet.......but will do so in the coming weeks so see if its fundamentally sound without this potential source of business.  What a coincidence !!  Just after finishing this Blog, I noticed an announcement by OKP today that it has been awarded a S$6mn contract by the PUB for desilting work on Phase II Diversion Canal.  So maybe my speculation about more such contracts is not so far fetched !!

If anyone knows of other construction stocks who are already doing PUB work - can you share these names with us on this Blog please.