European shipyard put up for sale by the ailing South Korean STX Offshore & Shipbuilding group could be sold befre the end of this year, a media report says.
MoneyToday has cited unidentified merger and acquisition specialists as saying STX Europe could fetch KRW 1 trillion ($933 million) in a disposal process beginning at the end of November. STX Offshore & Shipbuilding’s major creditor Korea Development Bank (KDB) is reportedly close to completing its due diligence on the company and is ready to offload yards in France and Finland.
STX Offshore & Shipbuilding owns 64% of the shares in STX France and 100% in STX Finland through its fully owned subsidiary company STX Europe, which has its headquarters in Oslo. STX Finland recently announced the closure of its shipyard inRauma, with a loss of about 700 jibs in the company.
The French yard, in St Nazaire, and the two Finnish yards have built cruise liners and ferries, while STX Finland also owns a 50% stake in Aker Arctic, which specialises in Arctic tonnage.
STX has already sold off STX OSV, a Singapore based company that builds offshore services vessels in various countries, to Italy's Fincantieri and Norway’s Floro yard to Westcon Group.
There was more bad news for STX’s restructuring yards on Thursday as group company STX Pan Ocean, itself under court receivership, announced newbuilding cancellations worth $225 million, $220 million of which is at STX plants.
