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Broker Liberum retained its 'buy' stance on rig maker Lamprell (LON:LAM) today after the firm's shares rose sharply after it announced a US$120.9 million contract to supply a jackup vessel.
As at 2.30 pm, Lamprell shares were up over 12 per cent, to stand at 115.25 pence.
Liberum targets a price of 179 pence per share.
The contract is for Seajacks 4 Ltd, for which the firm has built three such vessels previously - Kraken, Leviathan and Zaratan - all of which have been operating on oil & gas and wind farm projects in the UK, Holland and, in future, Germany.
The latest vessel is named Seajacks Hydra and will be built at Lamprell's Hamriyah facility in the United Arab Emirates and delivered in 2014.
Lamprell's chief executive Nigel McCue told investors:
"I am delighted that Seajacks are continuing to work with Lamprell, following successful delivery of three vessels to them in the recent past.
"This reinforces our customer's confidence in Lamprell's ability to deliver major construction projects on time and budget."
The oil and gas contractor has been much in the news in recent weeks - after issuing two profit downgrades.
However, on June 15, it said it had successfully delivered an offshore platform to Grupo Mexico and revealed it had found a new non-exec chairman in John Kennedy, an experienced engineer who has previously worked at Schlumberger and oil services giant Halliburton.
He replaced Jonathan Silver, who became deputy chairman.
In a note, Liberum said it was confident the new Hydra contract would be profitable and it had raised forecasts for 2013 and 2014
"Hopefully, this is a step toward re-establishing confidence in the business although a full share price recovery may need further evidence that Lamprell can deliver satisfactory returns from its EPC contracts."