Sundiro Holdings Signs Joint Venture with Sanlorenzo and Invests in Italian Company to Become No. 1 Yacht Manufacturer in China

Shanghai, China, October 24, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Sundiro has decided to invest in the yacht industry, which is understood to be booming the next years. 25 years ago Sundiro started manufacturing motorcycles and started a joint venture with Honda becoming China’s leading motorbike company 15 years ago. A string of acquisitions and mergers led to the formation of a leading Coal Mine Group in Inner Mongolia in 2006. This June Sundiro continued the diversification of its businesses by beginning to be involved in aviation industry. The next step is the investment in the yacht industry.

The development of the yacht industry is strongly supported by the Chinese government. In December 2009, the State Council explicitly encouraged coastal provinces to begin developing this field. The National Tourism Administration encouraged in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” to develop water tourism yacht as shall serve as important carrier for the development of the industry. In 2011 the General Administration of Customs promulgated the “Hainan Export Yacht Interim Measures” as a further step to open and develop the domestic yacht market. In May 2013, the “Hainan yacht marina layout planning” was published, which includes the completion of 7.700 yacht berths by 2020 and 37.500 yacht berths by 2030 located in the international tourist island Hainan. Private investments will further boost this development.

Sundiro’s chosen partner is Sanlorenzo Spa, headquartered in Viareggio (Italy). Sanlorenzo was founded in 1958 and has developed to the world´s third largest yacht manufacturer for large-sized yachts. Mr. Zhao, chairman of Sundiro, selected San Lorenzo as partner in particular because of company´s brand, know how as well as its leading market position as third largest producer of large luxury yachts in the world.

Parties agreed to build up a joint venture in China, located in Hainan, for production with a total investment of EUR 10 million. This joint venture owned 75% by Sundiro and 25% by Sanlorenzo will focus on manufacturing, design, sales and after-sales services in the Greater China region. The joint venture will be responsible for manufacturing yachts smaller than 66 feet and other yachts that are not competing with yachts produced by Sanlorenzo in Italy. Besides the participation in joint ventures for distribution Sundiro will invest at least EUR 20 million in the Italian company Sanlorenzo Spa becoming shareholder of San Lorenzo with a stake of about 22% in the company.

After setting up the joint venture in China, the estimated annual output of 35 to 66 feet luxury yachts is 250 for an approximate sales value of 1.5 billion RMB (about EUR 180 million).

Bexuco lead the M&A and financial advice for Sundiro using its expertise in cross border Chinese-European M&A deals. Mr. Zhao, the chairman of Sundiro, highly praised it´s advisor Bexuco that demonstrated great experience and efforts in structuring and executing such overseas transactions, he affirmed. This, as Mr. Zhao added, saved time as well as costs and was a key factor to a successful completion of the transaction.

Bexuco China cooperates in Europe with the Barcelona and Madrid based law firm AGM abogados.

For further details contact Selina Xu (xu @ bexuco.com)