STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, the troubled South Korean shipbuilding group, is reported to be in the final stages of selling its STX Europe unit that owns 100% of the Turku yard in Finland and 66% of the St Nazaire yard in France.
Citing Korea Development Bank, which is the principal creditor of the Seoul based shipbuilding group, the Yonhap news agency says that an agreement to sell STX Europe could be reached next month and finalised in June.
The French government owns about 34% of the shares in STX France, which again owns the St Nazaire shipyard.
STX Europe is in the process of closing down its smaller yard in Rauma. The larger Turku yard is building two 99,300 gross ton cruise ships for TUI Cruises in Germany, the last of which will be delivered in the spring of next year.
The Turku yard in Filand has a newbuilding dock 365 metres long by 80 metres wide, whereby the facility might interest a cruise ship builder that requires capability to build even larger vessels but is currently lacking facilities large enough to allow that.
