Bankrupt Nantong Mingde seeks new investors

Chinese shipbuilder Mingde said last Friday that it has requested to a local court to extend the submission of the restructuring plan’s time limit, which lapsed on 25 June.

Mingde’s long time business partner Sainty Marine had originally wanted to help Mingde via a debt-for-equity rescue deal, but Sainty Marine itself has been troubled by a host of financial problems, leading to a mutual agreement to terminate the rescue plan.

Among the several prerequisites, the new investors for Mingde would need to put down a guarantee of RMB100m ($16m). The receiver of Mingde has set a timeline of up until 30 July 2015 to receive interests from investors.

As at 31 December 2014, Mingde made a loss of RMB470.45m. The company saw Sainty Marine applied to help with its restructuring back in December last year.

Sainty Marine is Mingde’s biggest creditor and the two shipyards had been collaborating over newbuilding contracts so as to utilise yard capacity and lower production costs.