Credit Suisse tips Wilmar (F34.SG) 3Q net profit of US$400 million-US$450 million ($515 million-$579 million) vs 3Q09’s USS$653 million; however, notes 3Q09 net profit included exceptional gain of US$233 million; expects 3Q core net profit in line with previous year.

Credit Suisse tips palm oil refining, plantation divisions should show sequential improvement in 3Q.

“The profit drag in 3Q FY10 could come from the oil seed division,” says research house which is keeping its Outperform, as Wilmar “a proxy to China's strong domestic consumption, as half of its profit is derived from China,”

Credit Suisse also notes RMB’s rise positive for Wilmar, 2H profitability should be better than 1H, stock has been laggard year to date. Says $7.42 target suggests potential upside of 11% or P/E of 20x, in line with 2011 P/E average for upstream players of 20.5x, based on CS earnings forecasts.

Results due pre-market Wednesday; shares +0.4% at $6.72.

With question marks over Rolls Royce’s Trent 900 engines after last week’s Qantas QF32 engine failure, UOB KayHian says key question is whether Trent 900 series has inherent design flaw or inadequate maintenance was the cause, says Dow Jones.

UOB KayHian notes SIA Engineering (S59.SG) has 50:30:20 SAESL JV with Rolls Royce, HAESL. SIAEC “should benefit from higher maintenance checks. However, if the cause of the engine failure is shown to be linked to a design flaw, this could lead to substantial risk for the OEM and SIAEC.”

Broker tips SAESL JV accounts for about 12% of PBT. Notes, Singapore Airlines (C6L.SG) A380s about 12% of passenger capacity; worst case, “SIA could replace the engines with another OEM, but that could lead to significant downtime and potentially even lower residual value on the A380s.” Could impact plans to sell, lease back some A380s. Keeps SIAEC at Sell, SIA at Buy.

CLSA restarts Venture Corp. (V03.SG) at Buy with $11.30 target, based on five-year average P/E of 14x, says Dow Jones.

CLSA says contract electronics manufacturer’s focus on wider-margin businesses, such as product planning and design, differentiates it from peers; “this and its diverse portfolio of more than 5,000 products have shielded it from commoditisation and average selling price declines and allowed it to sustain an average decade-long” operating margin premium of 3.7 percentage points over rivals.

Research house notes Venture’s strategy has always been to deepen engagement with existing customers by increasing number of products, processes it undertakes. Tips company as potential takeover target for Asian electronic manufacturing services companies like Hon Hai Precision (2317.TW). Shares off 0.5% at $9.34.