State-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC, Russia) has acquired a 50-percent stake in Aker Helsinki Shipyard oy (Helsinki, Finland), PortNews reports citing a source in the Aker Group.
USC closed the deal recently, and at the time of the transaction the Aker's shipbuilding asset cost 300 million euros. The shipyard is capable of building ships of ice class of any complexity, including the powerful icebreakers. The source declined to unveil the price USC paid for the stake in Finnish shipyard.
USC press service has confirmed with PortNews the deal information but declined to comment until the announcement of the results of a tender, announced by Sovcomflot, for ice-class ships contract.
As USC said the deal is aimed at meeting the needs of primarily Sovcomflot, as well as other Russian shipping companies that plan to place orders for the construction of high-tech ice-class vessels.
A spokesman to Aker Group added that under the deal with USC, the Russian Corp. is receiving soon a 20.4% stake in the design office Aker Arctic Technology Inc. The design institute has a unique experimental basin, where ice-class vessels are passing tests.
As PortNews has reported recently, Sovkomflot President & CEO Sergey Frank announced the shipping company was considering an order for two diesel-electric icebreakers for operations in the Sakhalin-2 project at a Finland shipyard.
FESCO Transport Group has also announced plans to upgrade the Arctic fleet. As FESCO President Sergey Generalov noted in an interview with PortNews the United Shipbuilding Corporation was able to meet the needs of the company he managed. "So we are working on our shipbuilding program, first of all, through our partnership with USC in terms of construction of multipurpose Arctic vessels. We are going to make decision in 2011-2012," said Sergei Generalov.
USC press service has confirmed with PortNews the deal information but declined to comment until the announcement of the results of a tender, announced by Sovcomflot, for ice-class ships contract.
As USC said the deal is aimed at meeting the needs of primarily Sovcomflot, as well as other Russian shipping companies that plan to place orders for the construction of high-tech ice-class vessels.
A spokesman to Aker Group added that under the deal with USC, the Russian Corp. is receiving soon a 20.4% stake in the design office Aker Arctic Technology Inc. The design institute has a unique experimental basin, where ice-class vessels are passing tests.
As PortNews has reported recently, Sovkomflot President & CEO Sergey Frank announced the shipping company was considering an order for two diesel-electric icebreakers for operations in the Sakhalin-2 project at a Finland shipyard.
FESCO Transport Group has also announced plans to upgrade the Arctic fleet. As FESCO President Sergey Generalov noted in an interview with PortNews the United Shipbuilding Corporation was able to meet the needs of the company he managed. "So we are working on our shipbuilding program, first of all, through our partnership with USC in terms of construction of multipurpose Arctic vessels. We are going to make decision in 2011-2012," said Sergei Generalov.