Hong Kong-based Pacific Andes International, which has struggled financially in recent years, filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Thursday, 30 June, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In court documents, Pacific Andes listed assets of USD 4.7 billion (EUR 4.2 billion) and debts of USD 2.5 billion (EUR 2.2 billion) in court filings. The bankruptcy filing comes after the company’s creditors, including HSBC and Bank of America, pushed their claim to the company’s assets following years of financial maneuverings, including a near-liquidation in November 2015 after a subsidiary of Pacific Andes failed to pay a USD 31 million (EUR 27.7 million) installment on a USD 650 million (EUR 581 million) loan.
The bankruptcy filing also includes product development entity Pacific Andes Resources Development and Pacific Andes subsidiary fishmeal and fish oil supplier China Fishery, which is based in Singapore and has approximate annual revenue around USD 585 million (EUR 525 million). According to the Wall Street Journal, the company’s assets include a fleet of 66 vessels and 10 processing plants in Peru. The newspaper also reported the company has been trying to sell its Peruvian business and faced “severe financial stress and encountered extreme challenges in their efforts to resuscitate and revive the business.”
U.S.-based National Fish and Seafood, which is owned by Pacific Andes and controls the Matlaw’s brand of seafood products, was not included in the bankruptcy filing.
Motley Fool Singapore reported that trading of shares of both China Fishery and Pacific Andes Resources have a collective market capitalisation of SGD 200 million (USD 148 million, EUR 133 million) was suspended in November 2015) and that shareholders of both companies “would most likely walk away with nothing when all’s said and done.”
