INTERESTED PERSON TRANSACTIONS - CANCELLATIONS OF SHIP BUILDING CONTRACTS
29 September, 2009
The Board of Directors of COSCO Corporation (Singapore) Limited (the “Company”) wishes to
announce that its subsidiary, COSCO (Zhoushan) Shipyard Co., Ltd. (“COSCO Zhoushan”)
(being a subsidiary of the Company’s 51% owned subsidiary, COSCO Shipyard Group Co., Ltd)
had entered into cancellation agreements with the nominees of COSCO International Ship
Trading Co., Ltd (the “Buyer”) (the “Cancellation Agreements”) in relation to the cancellation of
ship building contracts for 2 units of pure car and truck carriers (“PCTC”) of 5,000 units each
entered into by COSCO Zhoushan (the “Ship Building Contracts”). The contract price of each of
the PCTC carrier is at US$52,500,000 each. Construction of the 2 vessels has not commenced.
The Ship Building Contracts, entered into on 6 June 2007, were interested person transactions
for the purposes of Chapter 9 of the Listing Manual issued by the Singapore Exchange Securities
Trading Limited (the “Listing Manual”) and for which the Company obtained shareholders’
approval on 25 September 2007.
Subsequent to the entry into of the Ship Building Contracts, the Buyer and COSCO Zhoushan
have had to enter into numerous further discussions and negotiations over the implementation of
the Ship Building Contracts. In the circumstances, they have decided that the most viable solution
for them mutually would be to cancel the Ship Building Contracts by mutual agreements.
The terms of the cancellations have been arrived at after more than nine months of negotiations
with the Buyer taking into account, amongst others, pre-construction expenses incurred by
COSCO Zhoushan and expenses incurred by the Buyer.
Under the Cancellation Agreements, the nominees of the Buyer have agreed to pay
compensation to COSCO Zhoushan amounting to US$10,300,000 in aggregate and COSCO
Zhoushan has agreed to return the instalments paid by the Buyer under the Ship Building
Contracts.
The Audit Committee of the Company is of the view that the terms of the above cancellations are
on normal commercial terms and that such terms are not prejudicial to the interests of the
Company and its minority shareholders.
The total value of all the Company’s interested person transactions (as defined in the Listing
Manual) with China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and its associates (as defined in the
Listing Manual), which includes the Buyer, for the current financial period to 30 June 2009 is
approximately S$579,846,000. The total value of all the Company’s interested person
transactions for the current financial period to 30 June 2009 is approximately S$580,335,000.
The above cancellations are not expected to have a significant impact on the net tangible assets
(NTA) and earnings per share (EPS) of the Company and the Group for the year ending 31
December 2009.
For and on behalf of the Board
Jiang Li Jun
Vice Chairman / President
Cosco Corporation (Singapore) Limited
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