State Equity News

Slovenian shipping firm Intereuropa and port operator Luka Koper canceled a planned merger because the government was demanding the right to veto any management decisions in the new firm. The two companies had planned to merge on July 1. The state owns 51 percent of Luka, while Intereuropa is privately owned. The state's equity in the new company would have been 35.7 percent. "There will be no merger under such conditions where the government would have the right to veto practically every management decision," Radovan Vrabec, Intereuropa's deputy chief executive, said. He said the two companies would be ready to continue merger talks if the government eased its demands. Vrabec said the two firms would not suffer short-term damage due to the failure of the merger.

Slovenian shipping firm Intereuropa and port operator Luka Koper canceled a planned merger because the government demanded the right to veto any management decisions in the new firm. The two companies had planned to merge on July 1. The state owns 51 percent of Luka, while Intereuropa is privately owned. The state's equity in the new company would have been 35.7 percent. Officials said the two companies would be ready to continue merger talks if the government eased its demands.

Britain's Cammell Laird plans to invest between five and $10 million as part of a bail-out package for Bulgaria's indebted Varna Shipyard. "Investments are aimed at upgrading production capacity. Two-thirds are to be made within 10 days after the bail-out plan is enforced and the remainder within 18 months," the Economy Ministry said in a statement. The plan was worked out by the yard's creditors including the ministries of finance and economy, and the Bank Consolidation Company which manages state equity in local banks, based on an indicative bid from Cammell Laird earlier this year. Cammel Laird is the sole bidder to implement the shipyard's restructuring and will acquire ownership over all of the yard's long-term assets as part of the plan, a ministry official told Reuters.

Cammell Laird said Bulgaria's dormant, state-controlled Varna shipyard could be up and running again by July if its bid for the indebted yard is approved by Bulgarian courts. "We hope we'll be able to resume operations sometime in July," Cammell Laird's European management director Tom Parry said. A regional court of appeal in the Black Sea city of Varna recently turned down objections by some of the yard's creditors to the British group's bailout plan that has been based on an indicative bid made by Cammell Laird last year. Creditors can appeal that decision within a period of about a month at Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Appeal, said Dimitar Smilenov, a court-appointed administrator at the idled yard that faced insolvency before Cammell emerged as a sole bidder.