USC Acquires Zvezda
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Thursday, June 18, 2015
United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) has taken on 53.5122% of the voting shares of the long planned Far Eastern Plant Zvezda shipbuilding complex in Russia’s Far East.
Zvezda (a company of the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Center, or FESRC) is a leading shipyard providing services for repairs of submarines of the Russia’s Pacific Fleet and the only company in the Far East specializing in repairs, conversion and modernization of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
Frustrated with the lack of yard space to build new tankers and oil platforms as high-priority naval orders filled up shipyards, state oil major Rosneft in 2013 launched a 111 billion ruble ($2 billion) modernization project at Zvezda, formerly one of the Soviet Union’s largest military shipyards.
Zvezda’s authorized capital is almost 5 billion rubles ($92 million) and is divided amongst 49.3 million shares valued at 100 rubles each, Interfax reported.
United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC OJSC) is the largest shipbuilding company in Russia. It was set up in 2007 with 100% federal ownership.
The holding comprises 60 companies and organizations (major shipbuilding and shiprepairing companies as well as leading design bureaus). Currently, USC consolidates about 80% of the domestic shipbuilding complex.
The Russian market is the main focus of the state corporation though it also exports its products to 20 countries worldwide. In 2014, net profit of USC totaled RUB 510.42 mln.