Baker Tech/Yangzijiang

Baker Tech shareholders has approved the sale of PPL Holdings to YZJ for US$155m at an EGM held on 26 Jun subject to the completion of the deal on or before the long stop date. To facilitate the purchase and in view of the ongoing litigation between Baker and SembMarine, YZJ has agreed to extend the long stop date by another 6 months to 27 Apr 11.

PPL Holdings hold a 15% interest in PPL Shipyard with the other 85% owned by SembMarine, which is trying to block the Baker’s proposed deal with YZJ, on the grounds that it has preemption rights but is unwilling to match YZJ’s price and offering a substantially reduced offer of $59.4m. However, the completion date extension by YZJ shows that the Chinese yard is not deterred by SembMarine’s court action and is determined to go ahead with its acquisition.