Sberbank received yet another bad asset - Amur Shipbuilding Plant (ASP). The bank will transfer the company to the state owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and allocate additional $400 million to restructure the facility.
Sberbank reached an agreement with the ASP' private shareholders to buy 59% of the shipyard's stocks for a token amount, Prime Minister Putin announced yesterday. The bank will sell the business to the state owned USC for the same amount and will allocate approximately $400 million for a period of 10 years to restructure the ASP' debt.
As a result, the Government will control 77% of the company's stocks. According to Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, the facility's owners made the decision to sell the company on their own even though the sale price turned out to be 10 times less than the cost of the Moscow to Komsomolsk-on-Amur airfare (32,000 roubles - Vedomosti).
Mr Putin, as if seeking the employees' approval of the deal, asked for a worker's opinion. The latter backed the de-privatisation of the yard, saying that it would lead to the company's "gradual recovery" (quoted by Interfax). A Sberbank representative refused to comment on the deal, but a source close to the bank confirmed its main terms.
During the last 10 years, the Inter-Regional Investment Bank (MIB) and its affiliate companies were the largest owners of the ASP. At the end of 2008, over 60% of the shipyard's stocks were formally owned by the following companies (according to the yard's financial report and the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRYL); the Moscow Region-based Antik, whose beneficiary is one of MIB's directors, Igor Kruglyakov; Trade and Finance Group (Kruglyakov is one of the co-owners); and PKK Inpak (beneficiaries are not known). The companies' representatives could not be reached during the weekend.
As of October 1, the ASP total debt was 33 billion roubles. According to Mr Putin, it currently amounts to 36 billion roubles. Of that amount, 13.9 roubles are owed to Sberbank (the company's main lender, holding the ASP controlling stake as collateral). The company even has electricity debts, and the Khabarovsk power supplying facility has filed for a legal action to start bankruptcy proceedings against the ASP.
The ASP is one of the most troublesome shipyards in Russia. It was constructed in 1930s to build navy ships for the region isolated from the European part of the country, Mikhail Barabanov, a Centre for Strategy and Technology Analysis expert explains. The yard mainly produced nuclear submarines. It has been experiencing economic problems since 1990s, when the navy stopped placing orders with the yard, Mr Barabanov said. The yard's private owners failed to attract civilian orders for the company, including projects from Sakhalin-based companies.
The USC plans for the yard are not clear yet. Prime Minister Putin is convinced, however, that the "prospects are good." He promised to allocate 2.5 billion roubles (in addition to Sberbank's loan) for the company, including 1.9 billion to finish a Bars, the yard's major submarine project, the financing of which was stopped in 1996.