China state agri fund invests in fishing company

The China Agriculture Industry Development Fund has invested Rmb400 million into Fujian Provincial Pingtan County Ocean Fishing Group.

The China Agriculture Industry Development Fund has invested Rmb400 million ($64 million; €57 million) into Fujian Provincial Pingtan County Ocean Fishing Group for an 8 percent equity stake.

The state-owned fund is buying the stake from Nasdaq-listed Pingtan Marine Enterprise, which will retain the remaining stake.

The Rmb4 billion fund was established by China’s Ministry of Finance, Agricultural Development Bank of China, Cinda Asset Management Corporation and Citic Group in 2012 and is the first state-owned fund to focus on investing into all areas of the agriculture industry. Cinda manages the fund.

It is entitled to appoint one representative to Pingtan Fishing’s board of directors.

The company plans to use the proceeds to acquire new fishing vessels and to build a processing plant as part of an expansion strategy downstream in order to sell fish products directly to the consumer, according to a press release.