(Yicai) March 21 -- Shares in Guolian Aquatic Products dipped today after the Chinese seafood supplier said it is pulling out of a proposed partnership with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund that would have seen it receive as much as USD500 million in investment.

Guolian Aquatic’s share price [SHE: 300094] was trading down 1.7 percent at CNY3.83 (USD0.53) as of 1 p.m. today. When the Zhanjiang-based company first announced the intended tie-up in June last year, its stock soared by the daily limit of 20 percent.

Guolian Aquatic and the Public Investment Fund, which is one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds with almost USD600 billion of assets under management, have agreed to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding, which was a friendly agreement of intent, signed last June, the firm said yesterday. No more details were provided.

The termination will not adversely affect Guolian Aquatic’s financial results, production and operations, it added.

Guolian Aquatic inked a deal with the Public Investment Fund’s Asia Division last June to get up to USD500 million through direct investment or financing for promoting projects related to seafood trade, including trading platforms, exchange, futures and procurement.

The Public Investment Fund would also extend a credit line of up to USD60 million to Guolian Aquatic's global seafood procurement process at a 3 percent annual interest rate and for a 20 percent cut of the income generated from the financing, it said at the time.

The Public Investment Fund has been branching out into Chinese assets in recent years. In 2022 it set up an office in Hong Kong and will soon open one on the mainland, Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said last December.

Editor: Kim Taylor