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No progress on proposed commercial fishing
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Posted on Feb 08 2006
No progress has taken place on the multi-million proposed commercial fishing venture in the CNMI.
“There’s no development,” said Department of Commerce economic development officer Glen Manglona yesterday.
He said, though, that the company, Seattle-based Lady Kimberly, remains interested in the project.
“They are still pursuing it but they said that they are still looking for another financing institution,” he said.
The company, which submitted its project proposal to the government about middle of last year, earlier sought a loan package from Bank of Guam to begin its operation.
Mangloña said that the Commonwealth Development Authority has also not given any word on the company’s loan guarantee request.
The business group had asked CDA to provide a guaranty for $600,000 or 25 percent of the total capitalization.
“There’s no word from CDA,” Manglona said.
The company, which recently formed a local group called Northern Mariana Fisheries Inc., projects to spend over $3 million a year in the CNMI for fleet support expenses.
Lady Kimberly president Courtney L. Zietzke earlier said that the corporation has “unconditionally pledged vessel assets to the lending bank and the CDA for the project to commence.”
He said their two vessels have been certified at a value of $1.8 million. Additional assets will be bought and pledged out of the proceeds of the funding being sought, he said.
The total assets being pledged for the project will exceed $2.5 million, Zietzke had said.
The CDA on Dec. 1 wrote Zietzke asking the latter to submit needed documents within a month. These requirements include a letter of commitment from a lending bank, in this case the Bank of Guam.
Speaking in support of the fishing project, Manglona had said that it should be the CDA that should provide a guaranty letter first before the investor could get a letter of commitment from the bank.
Zietzke, meantime, said that all requirements were being met, including insurance requirements to satisfy all CNMI regulations.
He had said the new corporation, NMFI, is just awaiting the CDA guarantee to complete a loan package with the local bank.
