Taiwan's U-Ming Marine Transport and Chinese partner Xiamen ITG Group are putting fresh cash into a groundbreaking bulker joint venture.
The Taipei-listed bulker owner said it was buying more new shares in ITG-Uming Shipping at $1 each for $20.3m.
U-Ming will maintain a 49% shareholding, which is worth 3% of the group's total assets. ITG still has the rest of the venture, suggesting it will invest a slightly larger amount.
U-Ming said the deal was done with a view to long-term investment in the venture, which was formed in 2018 to provide shipping services across the Taiwan Strait to China.
U-Ming has 37 operational dry cargo ships and a VLCC.
Xiamen ITG already had dry bulk shipping operations, albeit much smaller than those of U-Ming.
The tie-up was not meant to own ships itself initially, but planned to charter in Chinese-flag tonnage from handysize to panamax, initially for coastal and inland trading with a focus on southern China.
But the venture held out the possibility of developing international business in the future.
Second Xiamen foothold
U-Ming already had a foothold in Xiamen through a crew recruitment subsidiary there.
Xiamen ITG is a Shanghai-listed public vehicle of Xiamen municipal government-owned Xiamen ITG Holding, also known as Xiamen Guomao.
The company is a conglomerate with operations in real estate investments, automobile distribution, finance and commodities trading.
The group is listed with 18 bulkers and a tanker, plus two platform supply vessels on order in China.
U-Ming is also part of a conglomerate, the Far Eastern Group, whose interests include energy, cement, construction, real estate and department stores.
