Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has bought the rest of its Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding subsidiary for CNY 650m ($100m).
The Singapore-listed company said it had acquired a 20% stake from Sanfu Shipbuilding Holdings to bring its holding in the Chinese shipyard to 100%.
Yangzijiang previously had 12.5% and another subsidiary — Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding — owned 67.5%.
Xinfu will now be a fully-owned subsidiary and "all profits attributable to the record shipbuilding orders placed with the group" will go towards its bottom line.
Premium paid
The price per share of CNY 6.5 was a 0.63% premium to the average price on 21 July.
The deal will be funded with 100m treasury shares.
Xinfu is equipped with the largest dock facility of the group's yards.
Yangzijiang said it is "heavily involved in the construction of mid to large-sized vessels, and is pivotal to the group’s future growth plans to build large and superior vessels".
Ren Letian, executive chairman and chief executive of the group, added that since it was formed in 2007, Xinfu has gone from strength to strength and established a strong track record in shipbuilding.
'Huge investment'
"The further acquisition signifies a huge investment in one of Yangzijiang’s key business units and in our existing major shipyard," he said.
Xinfu is listed with 31 vessels on order, mainly boxships, but also has three VLOCs, a capesize and an MPP/heavylift unit.
Owners include Atlas Corp's Seaspan, Tiger Group and China Development Bank.
TradeWinds reported earlier in July that Yangzijiang was poised to sign a newbuilding deal with Seaspan to build 10 LNG-fuelled, 7,000-teu vessels worth a total of $1.05bn.
Sources said negotiations for the neo-panamax ships — said to be priced at $105m each — have been concluded and the official newbuilding contract will be inked imminently.
If confirmed, Seaspan’s order will be Yangzijiang's second LNG-fuelled boxship contract. The yard's first deal was for a pair of 14,000-teu vessels placed by Hong Kong-based Tiger Group early last year.
