Meyer Buys Out Turku Shipyard

The German shipbuilder Meyer Werft has exercised the option to buy the remaining 30% stake at the Finnish Meyer Turku from the government-owned Finnish Industry Investment (FII), becoming the sole owner of the shipyard.

Back in September 2014, Meyer Werft and the Finnish Government signed a share purchase agreement with the STX Europe, the owner of the shipyard at the time. According to the agreement, Meyer Werft acquired a 70% stake, and the State of Finland purchased 30% of the share capital through FII.

FII says that in accordance with its policy to exit from its investments, it was agreed for Meyer to have a call option to buy the state-run company’s minority stake in the shipyard.

”At the time of the purchase Meyer was only operating shipyards in Germany and therefore going to invest in Finland was a big and strategic step for us – which we carefully considered from different angles,” said Jan Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of Meyer Turku.

”In general, I hope that our decision to buy all the shares is received as a sign of confidence that we can make Turku shipyard a long term shipbuilding success.” 

The change in the ownership structure is expected to become effective within the next weeks.

”We are happy to see that the Turku shipyard is developing so positively. Our engagement was an investment in Finnish strengths – the shipyard and the strong maritime cluster. It is good to see that Meyer is sharing our confidence and further invests in the Turku shipyard. This benefits not only the yard but also the maritime cluster and Finland at large,” said Jan Vapaavuori, the Finnish Minister of Economy.

”Meyer has had a great start in Finland bringing a lot of new orders to Turku. I want to congratulate Meyer and the whole shipyard for a fine start in Finland.”