INTERVIEW-ST Engineering aims to raise orders, bids for projects

SINGAPORE, May 21 (Reuters) - Singapore Technologies Engineering (STEG.SI) expects to raise its orderbook in 2009 as it is bidding for government projects in China, Europe and the Middle East, a senior executive said on Thursday.

The engineering comglomerate, 49 percent owned by state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], also said its 2009 financial performance is expected to be within 5 percent of last year's results.

"All those infrastructure projects that the governments are putting their money into, we are ready to take more of these projects," Seah Moon Ming, deputy chief executive officer of ST Engineering, told Reuters in an interview.

As of March 2009, the company had an order book of S$11.03 billion ($7.6 billion), up from S$10.6 billion at the end of 2008, though Seah did not specify the expected increase for 2009.

(Reporting by Neil Chatterjee and Harry Suhartono, editing by Saeed Azhar)

((harry.suhartono@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6403 5658; Reuters Messaging: harry.suhartono.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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