Polish yard negotiations continue

A report on the progress of negotiations with investors interested in buying the Polish shipyards was sent to the Polish Treasury Minister yesterday. Aleksander Grad has designated special teams to conduct the negotiations. ?Today I will receive information from the negotiation teams about what has and what has not been negotiated so far,” the minister said during a press conference on Thursday. Grad said that the ministry will try to sum up the progress of negotiations with individual investors.

The Polish Mostostal Chojnice is interested in buying the shipyard in Szczecin, the Polish shipbuilding company wants to invest in the Gdynia shipyard, while ISD plans to join the shipyards in Gdansk and Gdynia.

?After the first stages of negotiations, we can see that we are able to prepare better restructuring plans,” said the minister. ?The more we negotiate now, the more time we will have to defend our agreements with the investors in front of the European Commission,” he added, and stressed that the government wants to finish the negotiations on the most important issues as soon as possible.

The European Commission agreed to extend the deadline for preparing restructuring schemes for the Polish shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin by 12 September. The Treasury Minister hopes that privatisations of both shipyards will be finished by 30 September.