Yangzijiang Maritime opens at 66 cents in SGX debut for $2.15 billion market cap

SINGAPORE – Yangzijiang (YZJ) Maritime Development opened at 66 cents on Nov 18 in its trading debut on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

The stock then rose swiftly to 71 cents briefly before closing at 67 cents at the end of its first trading day.

Its opening price places the market capitalisation of the company at $2.15 billion, higher than an earlier projection of $2.04 billion.

YZJ Maritime was spun off from mainboard-listed YZJ Financial, with shareholders receiving units in the new company on a one-for-one basis.

YZJ Maritime also raised gross proceeds of at least $5.2 million through a private placement of some 8.6 million shares at 60 cents each.

Its listing decoupled YZJ Financial’s maritime fund and investments from the rest of its investment management business, comprising mostly debt and real estate investments in China mired in a persistent downturn.

YZJ Financial itself had been hived off from YZJ Shipbuilding in 2022.

YZJ Maritime is led by executive chairman and chief executive Ren Yuanlin, founder of YZJ Shipbuilding. He had stepped down from YZJ Financial on Oct 31 ahead of the spin-off.

In a bourse filing a day before its trading debut, YZJ Maritime announced it had signed contracts with a Marshall Islands-based shipowner for the sale of four new medium-range tankers with an aggregate gross value of US$180 million (S$234 million).

These four new medium-range tankers are being built at a Chinese shipyard and are scheduled for delivery between 2026 and 2027, YZJ Maritime said.

YZJ Maritime also entered into joint ventures to build four new medium-range tankers with a European shipowner and four new bulk carriers with a Singapore-based shipowner.

These vessels will be built at two Chinese shipyards for delivery between 2027 and 2028, with YZJ Maritime having majority equity interests that complement its portfolio diversification strategy in these joint ventures, it said.