The sale of the Turku shipyard to German shipbuilder Meyer Werft concluded on Friday, as German competition authorities accepted the deal.
The move means the docks – formerly owned by Korean operators STX – will henceforth be known as Meyer Werft Turku, and will come under the direction of the company’s CEO Jan Meyer. The Finnish state will hold a 30 percent stake in the yard. The cost of the deal has not been made public.
Most importantly for the city of Turku, however, the sale puts an end to a long period of uncertainty and threatened redundancies. The takeover brings the promise of thousands of jobs, as Meyer Werft will build two cruise ships at the site for cruise operator TUI, starting in 2016.
The two vessels represent an order of one billion euros and will require 10,000 person-work-hours. The scheduled completion date is 2017.
The state-owned financing company Finnvera has pledged to underwrite between 50 and 80 percent of the cost of building of the two ships, offering Meyer Turku a guarantee of up to 300,000 euros. This brings the government’s total guarantee of all past and current vessels to 1.3 billion euros.
