Baltic shipyard being demolished

Sergey Pugachev’s United Industrial Corp. has found an investor to pay for the liquidation of one of Russia’s largest shipbuilding companies, the Baltic Yard. Vneshtorgbank (VTB) will provide the corporation with $550 million to transfer the plant’s capacities to Northern Wharfs and demolish the Baltic Yard to the ground in order to build exclusive housing and offices in its place on Vasilyevsky Island.

The 70 hectares of land occupied by the Baltic Yard is estimated to be worth $140 million. Shares in Northern Wharf will be used as collateral for the credit. VTB will thus indirectly receive control over the enterprise that Rosoboronexport tried to buy in the spring of 2006 and the state package which will be included in the United Industrial Corp.

United Industrial Corp. owns 72.23% of Northern Wharf and 80 % of the Baltic Yard. Another 20.96% of Northern Wharf belongs to Rosimushchestvo, the federal property management agency. Northern Wharf will be modernized at the same time, and the project will take six years to complete.