Amur returns to state ownership

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin announced that the landmark Amur shipyard in the far east of the country is to be taken back into state hands. Putin announced the transfer of a 59% stake to the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) at a meeting with management and workers at the troubled shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

He noted the yard’s falling order book and a disaster last year in which 20 people were gassed to death aboard one of its submarines during sea trials. The purchase, which is being arranged with state bank Sberbank acting as an intermediary and providing finance, will take the USC’s total stake to 77%. Sberbank will buy the stake for a token sum, before passing it on to the corporation. “We’re not setting de-privatisation as a goal. But where an owner is ineffective one needs to think about how to change the situation,” remarked Putin.

Putin said Sberbank would give the shipyard over $400 million over 10 years to help restructure its debt, estimated at ?811 million. In addition, the plant would receive nearly two billion rubles to fulfill its current orders, including from India, said Putin.