USC made a proposal to OPK
Time will show of it is the one usually they cannot refuse from. The management of USC views OPK as a member of a joint venture. Allegedly the idea was first voiced at the remarkable meeting of the government in May held by the Prime Minister Putin. This is one of the events which take place with the comments like “at last”. It goes without saying that Russian shipbuilding in general and Western Center for Shipbuilding and Ship Repair in particular cannot exist without privately owned Severnaya Verf and Baltic Shipyards. A year after the creation of USC inevitable integration has been initiated in the form of a joint venture.
To tell the truth, this must be a new precedent in the policy of so called state-private partnership. So for in different industries in similar situations the state tried to force the privately owned JSC into bigger state run ones thus making them minority shareholders.
In St Petersburg the government is ready to contribute to the joint venture Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard, OPK is suggested to contribute Severnaya Verf. This combination looks logic, as both work closely together. The former is building a lot of constructions for the corvettes made by the latter.
In the situation with no official answers from both parties anonymous comments today deal with who should own the controlling interest and whether there will be more contributions from both sides. From our point of view such discussions are quite senseless. The two can go on with the construction of the corvettes and anything else as successfully as before without any joint ventures. The most important point in this situation is to try to predict whether the context of joint venture will grow into something more universal, i.e. encompassing all SPb based shipbuilding, both private and state; and if so how quickly it will happen.