Vladimir Lisin sold the company to the former head of the board of directors of Sovfracht
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The Volga Shipping Company has completed the sale of the Oka Shipyard. The buyer, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market, was the former chairman of the board of directors of Sovfracht, Alexander Ivanov. Formally, the sale is explained by the intention of the Volga Shipping Company to focus on the transportation of goods, abandoning related routes. However, Kommersant’s interlocutors on the market say that sanctions risks could be the reason for the sale. Experts note that the Okskaya Shipyard is one of the best small shipbuilding enterprises in technical and managerial terms and is provided with orders, but the company needs “competent management.”
Volga Shipping Company (controlled by Vladimir Lisin’s Fletcher Group) has completed the sale of the Oka Shipyard. “In accordance with the direction of development adopted by Volga-fleet, the company focused on the transportation of goods by sea and river dry cargo fleet, abandoning related directions,” the company explained. “In this regard, in 2022, an agreement was concluded for the sale of a stake in the Oka Shipyard, settlements for which were completed this year.”
The buyer and the transaction amount are not disclosed. Three sources in the industry told Kommersant that the buyer was the former chairman of the board of directors and shareholder of Sovfracht, Alexander Ivanov. Mr. Ivanov did not respond to Kommersant’s request.
This year, the Oka Shipyard completed the delivery of a series of five sea fire-fighting rescue tugs of project NE025 for the Marine Rescue Service (Timan, Tepsei, Pechak, Uzon and Favor), launched two bilge water collectors of project RST38 “Koporye” and “Koppi” for “Rosmorport”, self-propelled dry cargo vessel of the RSD71 project “Konstruktor Egorov”. According to data for 2020 (the latest available from SPARK-Interfax), the company’s revenue was 9.2 billion rubles, net profit was 1.07 billion rubles.
The process of selling the Okskaya Shipyard was actually completed back in 2022. In 2023, Vladimir Lisin also sold another large transport asset controlled by him – the First Freight Company; the transaction amount was, according to Kommersant sources, 270 billion rubles. (see “Kommersant” dated October 3).
The motives that may have guided Mr. Lisin in selling the Okskaya Shipyard may be related to sanctions issues, says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors in the industry. Okskaya Shipyard specializes in civilian shipbuilding, but throughout its history it has also worked with military customers, in particular from the Ministry of Defense, building raid crew boats of Project 21270 in 2015–2017.
Nadezhda Malysheva from PortNews believes that the Oka Shipyard is among the best small private shipyards. The high quality of assets does not require large additional investments; the company is secured with orders for two years in advance, the expert says, noting that river-sea vessels are now in great demand and it will only grow. Dry cargo ships and tankers of the “river-sea” class are in demand, which operate on the river in the summer and are sent for coastal navigation in the Black Sea in the winter, including servicing communications with Turkey.
According to Mrs. Malysheva, there may be many reasons why Vladimir Lisin sold the Okskaya shipyard – the asset is quite small for him – but managing the shipyard requires a lot of personal involvement of the owner, while the profitability of the business is not too high.
Mrs. Malysheva emphasizes that in order for the shipyard not to lose its position, competent management by the new owner is necessary. She notes that the buyer the market is talking about “is not well known as a businessman in his own right in the shipping industry, but has often acted as a partner in various shipping businesses.”
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