Interest in Stocznia Gdynia dwindles

Fewer and fewer companies appear ready to acquire Stocznia Gdynia. One of the reasons is the fact that the Ministry of the Treasury wants a ban signing new contracts until an investor is chosen.

Potential investors for Stocznia Gdynia were supposed to submit binding offers on Monday but the Ministry of the Treasury has extended the deadline and no one knows how much more time there will be to submit offers. Initial offers were submitted by Amber (a company of Przemyslaw Sztuczkowski, head of Zlomrex), Chinese-Korean C&Heavy Industries, Marine-Co (a company founded by several businessmen from Gdansk) and Ray Car Carriers (a company owned by Israeli ship owner Rami Ungar). According to unofficial sources, the final list will be much shorter.

“The Koreans will probably not submit their offer. Rami Ungar will also fail to submit one”, a person close to the tender believed. Rami Ungar was worried that the ministry asked the shipyard not to sign any contracts until potential partner for exclusive negotiations is chosen. The Ministry is worried that the shipyard has too strong a link with Rami Ungar. The shipyard has to cooperate closely with the ship owner so because it has no other choice since it was mainly thanks to his borrowings that the shipyard could pay wages, buy materials and pay its bills.

The shipyard has contracts till the middle of 2009. The only partner who wants to sign contracts for 2009 is Rami Ungar.