Languages

More bidders for Arkhangelsk Trawler Fleet

Powerful people want control over the Arkhangelsk Trawler Fleet. Photo: Atle Staalesen

An investment company with links to Rosneft is ready to engage in the privatization of one of Russia’s biggest trawler fleets.

Location

The United Capital Partners, an investment group headed by Ilya Shcherbovich, is the latest bidder for the trawler fleet. Shcherbovich and his UCP are ready to join forces with the current management of the fleet in a bid for the now state-owned company.

Mr. Shcherbovich is a board member of both Rosneft and Transneft.

As previously reported, all 100 percent of the Arkhangelsk Trawler Fleet will be privatized in the course of 2013. The estimated price for the company is 1,2 billion RUB.

A total of five companies have registered as bidders for the fleet, among them a subsidiary of the powerful “Russkoye More”, the company owned by Novatek owner Gennady Timchenko and his partner Maksim Vorobyov. Also the companies Virma, Robinsom, and Meridian are take part in the privatization auction, Kommersant reports.

After several years of serious economic hardships, the ATF in 2011 had a solid net profit of more than 130 million RUB.

The ATF is one of Russia’s biggest trawler fleets. It owns a total of twenty trawlers, significant port infrastructure and major quotas in Russian northern waters.