Polish shipyard restructuring sails into stormy waters

The creation of the Polish Shipyards Corporation (KPS) has been postponed yet again, this time due to protests from the shareholders of Gdynia Shipyard (SG).

The restructuring of the country’s shipyard sector began almost three years ago and since then the Polish state treasury has spent a total of over $700 million on the project with very little to show so far. It had been envisaged that KPS would be formed in June, but minority shareholders of SG protested against the decision at the shareholders meeting to raise the company’s capital. This means that the sector’s consolidation is now uncertain as SG will not now issue new shares, from which it was hoped that SG capital would have been increased by $93 million. The management of SG claims they have no knowledge of the minority shareholders’ protest.