Hong Kong-listed Pacific Basin Shipping will sell its entire stake in its harbour towage business in Australia for AUD74.0M ($61.3M) in a move to focus on its dry bulk business.
The sale of PB Towage (Australia) Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, will include 17 harbour tugs and a barge, a stock filing of Pacific Basin said today.
The deal involves all of Pacific Basin's harbour towage business.
The buyer will be Smit Lamnalco (Australia), a subsidiary of Smit Lamnalco Group, which is an international provider of towage and associated marine services to the oil and gas industry.
Completion of the deal is expected in January 2015. The company plans to use the net sale proceeds of $60.0M to raise working capital, including contracted capital expenditure.
In 2013, PB Towage (Australia) slipped to losses of AUD2.3M, down from profits of AUD7.0M in 2012.
After the completion of the transactions, the net assets of the company's towage segment will reduce to approximately $48.5M, representing 13 tugs and 6 barges for vessel towage business in the Middle East area, Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.ihsmaritime360.com/article/15803/pacific-basin-to-exit-harbour-towage-business.
