News

Finnish pension insurer leaves door ajar to shipbuilding industry stake

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 23 January 2013 23 January 2013

A Finnish pension insurance company has stated that it could invest in the Finland shipbuilding industry, while the head of a working group that set up by the government to look into the future of the maritime cluster in the Nordic country has opposed the idea of government’s participation in the company as shareholder, media reports say.

Harri Sailas, managing Director of Eläkevakuutusyhtiö Ilmarinen said in an interview with the Kauppalehti business daily that the company could invest in the finnish shipbuilding industry. However, he added that an investment in the troubled STX Finland shipbuilding company in its current form is not an option as the risk would be too high.

Meanwhile, Ole Johansson, head of a working group to look at the future of the maritime cluster in Finland, was heard by the Parliament’s economic affairs committee on Wednesday. Johansson had stated thsat the government should not acquire an ownership stake in the clountry’s shipbuilding industry, the national broadcaster YLE said on the Internet.

Earlier, a number of suppliers and contractors to STX Finland had expressed an interest in acquiring a stake in STX Finland on the condition that the government join them. Economic affairs minister Jan Vapaavuori said such participation is an option.

Fincantieri, the Italian state owned shipbuilder, said today it had completed an earlier announced acquisition of a 50.75% stake in STX OSV, the offshore services vessel builder, from STX Finland’s Norway based parent STX Europe,m ewhich again is part of the STX Business Group of South Korea. STX Europe will deposit the NOK640 million it received from the sale with a public trustee for a pending repayment of a bond loan.

Strong start for Norwegian on Nasdaq

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 21 January 2013 21 January 2013

Shares in Norwegian Cruise Line Holding, parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line and NCL America, soared on the first day of trading in them on Nasdaq in New York on Friday.

The shares closed 30.47% up on the day at $24.79. They had been floated at $19.00 each. The company's shares are traded under the symbol NCLH.

Norwegian was listed in Oslo prior to the acquisition of the compan y by the Star Cruises grouip in 1999-2000. However, they had underperformed peers like Carnival and Royal Caribbean due to the then weak performance of the company.

In the first nine months of 2012, Norwegian made a net profit of $146.8 million, more than the $126.9 million it made in the entire calendar year 2011.

The US markets are closed on Monday.

Finnish consortium plans to buy stake in STX Finland, invites government to join

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 21 January 2013 21 January 2013

A number of suppliers and contractors in the shipbuilding industry want to buy a minority stake in STX Finland, the ailing shipbuilder in South Korea’s STX Business Group, and they have asked the Finnish government to join in, media reports say.

“A number of major companies are involved in this, also from outside Finland Proper,” Juha Hietarinta, Managing Director of electrical installation firm Laivasahkotyo was quoted by the Finnish national broadcaster YLE as saying. Finland Proper is the province in which the city of Turku is located. STX Finland has a shipyard there and another one in Rauma.

Hietarinta said that the consortium expects that the Finnish government too acquire a holding in STX Finland, which before Christmas lost an order for a third Oasis class cruise liner.

Economic affairs minister Jan Vapaavuori said on Saturday that the government’s participation in acquiring a stake in STX Finlabnd is an option. However, he pointed out that the yard had lost the third Oasis order to STX France already before the government rejected STX Finland’s request for a €50 million subordinated loan. The government did agree to grant the company a smaller amount under different terms.

Financing of the two ships TUI Cruises has on order at STX Finland remains unsolved and Hietarinta said the question is about a few days or weeks at most to solve the matter. The consortium of companies that plans to acquire a stake in the shipbuilder wants not only to secure this order, but to restore confidence in the builder so that it could win new orders.