A Russian-controlled shipyard in Helsinki is set to change hands for the third time this decade in the coming days.
Arctech Helsinki Shipyard, an Arctic specialist, will be rebranded Helsinki Shipyard later this month when Russian state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) sells it to Algador Holdings, owned by two Russian businessmen, Rishat Bagautdinov and Vladimir Kasyanenko, who is also a Belgian citizen. Bagautdinov co-owns cruiseship company Vodohod and cargoship owner Pola Group while Kasyanenko is the director of a number of Russian shipping lines.
The yard will be chaired by Victor Olerskiy, a director at Sovcomflot and a former minister to Vladimir Putin.
The Russian ownership of the Finnish shipyard dates from 2010 and a joint venture between Russia’s state-owned OSK and STX Finland, part of South Korea’s STX group. In recent years the yard, situated on a site where ships have been built for nearly 200 years, has been hit hard by sanctions imposed on Russia.
