Yangzijiang Shipbuilding seeks stake in Singapore's PPL Shipyard

China's Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) Limited plans to take a stake in Singapore's PPL Shipyard, an 85 percent-owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Marine. On April 15, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding entered into a placement agreement with a Middle East investor relating to the placement of 83,555,000 new ordinary shares at the issue price of S$1.295 per new share, raising US$ 77,655,000.
Yangzijiang has entered into a joint investment agreement with the Middle East investor and Mediterranean Success Group (which is wholly owned by Yangzijiang Non-Executive Director, Mr. Yu Kebing) to acquire PPL Holdings Pte Ltd. -- which is owned by Baker Technology Ltd. and which controls the 15 percent of PPL Shipyard that is not owned by Sembcorp Marine. On completion of the acquisition, Yangzijiang, the investor and MSG would be have stakes in PPL Holdings of 50.1 percent, 45 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.
Yangzijiang has issued a binding letter of offer to Baker to acquire the entire issued and paid-up share capital of PPL Holding. It says that if the offer is accepted and the deal is completed, PPL Shipyard's key managers -- Benety Chang and Anthony Sabastian Aurol -- have undertaken to continue in their key executive positions until December 31, 2013.
Yangzijiang says its post-acquisition involvement in PPL Shipyard's business for the design and construction of offshore drilling rigs would add to, and further strengthen its capabilities in this area and further its development and competency strategies.