Pingtan Orders 25 Newbuild Fishing Vessels

Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd., a global fishing company based in the People's Republic of China (PRC), has announced that the company recently ordered 25 newly-built fishing vessels as a continuation of its fleet replacement plan.  The vessels have received ratifications from the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China (MOA), which ensures that the licenses to fish in foreign waters will be transferred to the new vessels.  The company will retire 25 of its older existing fishing vessels, and the replaced fishing vessels will use new vessel names once put into operations.

The replaced vessels are expected to be built in China, and will be delivered to the Company within next 18-24 months.  At full operation, each vessel is capable of harvesting 900-1,000 tons of approximately 30 types of species of fish from the Indian and Indonesia Ocean.

Pingtan is prepared to finance this fleet replacement plan by utilizing one of its three bank facilities totaling RMB 393.62 million (approximately $63.31 million) with The Export-Import Bank of China Fujian Branch and China Development Bank Fujian Branch which both have a long-standing relationship with the company or its credit lines with China MinSheng Bank Fujian Branch, China Development Bank Fujian Branch, and The Export-Import Bank of China Fujian Branch which total in the aggregate RMB 707.7 million (approximately $113.7 million).

Pingtan's Chairman and CEO, Xinrong Zhuo, stated, "We look forward to continuing to strengthen our fleet.  We feel it is important to continue reinvesting by deliberately replacing older vessels with newly built assets without disruption to our fishing operations.  We feel this is a benefit resulting from having access to capital and operational leverage which allows us to reinvigorate our fleet as necessary. We are also pleased to complete these financings with highly-regarded banking establishments.  These facilities provide Pingtan with a greater level of financial flexibility as we move forward in our plans to expand our fishing enterprise."