Yinson FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor
KUALA LUMPUR: Yinson Holdings Bhd
is selling its 26% stake in wholly-owned marine vessel charterer Yinson Production (West Africa) Pte Ltd (YPWAPL) for up to US$117mil (RM483.6mil) in cash.
The conditional share purchase agreement, signed on Tuesday with Japan Sankofa Offshore Production Pte Ltd (JJVC), JJVC shareholders and the purchaser guarantors, followed the signing of the heads of agreement in June.
In a Bursa Malaysia filing, Yinson said it was selling the 53.74 million shares in YPWAPL to JJVC, whose shareholders are Sumitomo Corp, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (“K” Line, one of Japan’s largest shipping firms) and JGC Corp.
Together with state-owned Development Bank of Japan Inc, they are all purchaser guarantors.
YPWAPL is chartering a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel - FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor - to Eni Ghana Exploration & Production Ltd for a firm charter period of 15 years, with five yearly extension options by Eni Ghana. The vessel is deployed 60km off Ghana’s coast.
Yinson said the proposed disposal was an opportunity for the Yinson group to partially monetise its investment in YPWAPL at an attractive price, and free up its financial resources to expand and bid for future projects.
Furthermore, it saw the strategic partnership with the four Japanese parties as offering a tremendous opportunity to build a long-term relationship with them, on which the parties may potentially leverage as a consortium to bid for future projects.
Part of the proceeds (US$50mil or RM206.6mil) from the proposed share disposal will be used to repay borrowings. The outstanding amount of borrowings totals RM3.12bil.
Yinson said the group’s proforma net gearing ratio was expected to decrease from 1.15 times to 0.79 times based on its audited consolidated financial position as at Jan 31, 2017.
The rest of the proceeds has been earmarked for capital expenditure (US$24mil), working capital (up to US$42.5mil), and estimated expenses (US$500,000).
Yinson said it targeted to complete the proposed disposal in the first quarter of 2018.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
