UNITED SHIPBUILDING CORP. TO GET CONTROLLING STAKE IN AMUR PLANT

RIA Novosti
16:00 | 11/ 05/ 2009

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, May 11 (RIA Novosti) – The United Shipbuilding
Corporation will receive 59% – a controlling stake previously owned
by a group of private shareholders – in the Amur Shipbuilding Plant,
the Russian premier told a shipbuilding meeting Monday.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that on Saturday "[state savings
bank] Sberbank and the group of private shareholders signed an
agreement on the sale of the share to Sberbank for a small sum so
that it could later be sold to the United Shipbuilding Corporation,
which is 100% state-owned."

Putin added that the corporation already has 17.9% of the plant’s
stock. "On the whole, the United Shipbuilding Corporation will have
a package of about 77%," he said.

The Amur plant’s owes 36 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) in loans,
including a 13.9 billion-ruble ($431 million) debt to Sberbank.

The government will help the plant restructure its debt. "In total,
almost 2.5 billion rubles [$77 million] and over $400 million will
be directed to debt restructuring," Putin said.