Russian government eyes private yards

The owner of the country’s two largest military shipyards has said the government wants to acquire both firms and that state arms trader, Rosoboronexport, was in talks to buy them. The Severnaya Verf and Baltiysky Zavod shipyards in St. Petersburg are estimated to hold shipbuilding contracts worth about $2 billion. The yards are owned by the United Industrial Corporation (UIC), which was established in 2004 to consolidate non-core assets of International Industrial Bank.

“The state has displayed interest in our Severnaya Verf and Baltiysky Zavod, as well as in the Iceberg design bureau creating icebreakers,” UIC director general Alexander Gnusarev said. President Vladimir Putin called in his state-of-the-nation address last week for the establishment of a national shipbuilding corporation.

“As we understand, the state plans to establish a concern building surface ships. The idea is being actively discussed by the Federal Industry Agency,” Gnusarev said. “We hold the very promising shipyards, while the state has the best design bureaus.” Gnusarev did not say which state entities might buy the shipyards and added that the government had not yet made an official offer to buy them or merge them with state-controlled design bureaus.

He said the assets of the two shipyards would have to be evaluated before detailed talks started, and said he expected the industry agency to outline its vision for the future shipbuilding concern within a month.