IMS to Focus on Liquefied Gas Transportation

I.M. Skaugen (IMS) has agreed terms, and signed a binding Equity Transfer Agreement, for the sale of its 50 per cent holding in the Chinese manufacturing company Shenghui Gas and Chemicals Systems Co Ltd (SGCS).

The buyer is Liangzhong Investment Co. Ltd, China that is also a major shareholder with 45.41% of its shares. The Buyer will arrange his own financing to secure the purchase.

A RMB 10 mill non-refundable down payment was, as per the agreement, paid into IMS’ accounts and the remainder of the purchase price will be paid by end November 2013. The agreements and repatriation of IMS’ funds are subject to customary Chinese government approvals. The agreed price of IMS’ shares is RMB 259 mill or about USD 42 mill and will generate a book gain of about USD 6.1 mill.

The sale of SGCS is in line with IMS’ focus on its core business; Liquefied Gas Transportation, and plan to visualize the potential values in the IMS’ core businesses. The investment in SGCS was initially made for strategic reasons in order to secure high quality manufacturing capabilities for the supply of the cargo containment and cooling systems for IMS’ new-building program of nine specialized gas carrying vessels in the period between the years 2006 to 2011. Six of these were “MG ships” which are designed to also transport LNG. After the delivery of these ships IMS’ investment in SGCS became non-strategic and the Company initiated the process of making a profitable exit in order to concentrate their business on Liquefied Gas Transportation.

Says Morits Skaugen, the CEO of IMS: “We are proud to both have been the largest shareholder and a contributor to the Shenghui Company since 2006. We provided the company with money and technology and its vision to focus on the LNG value chain. We have then seen the further use of advanced technology to see its growth in the employment of Chinese in the new factories that has been made in China. When we made our equity investment of USD 11 mill in 2006 the Shenghui Company had a turnover of RMB 145 mill and expected this year is over RMB 1 billion. SGCS has thus since IMS’ equity investment was made in 2006 developed rapidly and it has been able to grow sevenfold in turnover while EBIT margins have been kept stable at above 10%. This has been quite an achievement by the management of this company; considering that no further equity injections have been made since by its shareholders since our initial investment was made in 2006”

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I.M. Skaugen, November 4, 2013