20,000t crane shipyard deal loses $240m in 'challenging' times

The value of a deal to buy a 30% stake in Yantai Raffles Shipyard has been reduced by USD 239 as the shipbuilder resists signing new contracts because of unstable prices and scarce materials. The Singaporean Yantai Raffles company has built one of the largest cranes in the world in a shipyard in Shenzhen, China. The Taisun crane was built to help assemble huge offshore structures, and can lift as much as 20,000t. Yantai Raffles chairman Brian Chang told Cranes Today that the crane cost USD 40m, excluding drydock costs.

In March 2008, Chang agreed to sell 29.9% of Yantai Raffles Shipyard Ltd to China International Marine Contractors for USD 6.92 per share, a total of USD 566m. On August 27, the company announced that the deal has been revised to USD 4.00 per share, a total of 327m. China International Marine Contractors is buying the shares through 100% subsidiary Sharp Vision Holdings. The sale is expected to close in October 2008, pending regulatory approval of Chinese and Singapore authorities. Chang retains 14.4% of Yantai Raffles issued share capital.
According to Yantai Raffles, Chang 'remains fully involved' in the company, and will continue to lead until at least 2012.
"The Company believes that the involvement of CIMC will serve as an engine for growth and bring significant improvement to its performance in the years to come," Yantai Raffles said in a statement.
Yantai Raffles' sales revenue grew to SGD 346m (USD 249) for the first half of 2008, up 145% over the same period last year, according to unaudited accounts.
In a statement about the earnings in late August, Brian Chang said, “We have delivered a profitable half year performance despite facing many challenges, including increased costs of materials, costs of labor, constraints in production space, and volatile foreign exchange markets."
"We continue to improve the management of our business and are following through with various strategic initiatives to address current ongoing challenges. We have acquired new land and formed joint ventures to increase the Group’s production capacity.
"In late 2007, we took a strategic decision to hold back from entering into a large number of new contracts due to volatile prices and scarce availability of materials and equipment. We believe that prices are going to be more stable going forward and will be entering into new contracts soon.”