ARP submits offer to buy Gdańsk shipyard

State-run Industrial Development Agency (ARP) has filed an offer to Ukranian Gdańsk Shipyard Group the owner of the Gdańsk shipyard to takeover the troubled facility. ARP wants to also acquire shares in GSG Towers a company also controlled by Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Taruta. “We have made a fair offer and we want to finalize the transaction as soon as possible as the situation of Gdańsk Shipyard and GSG Towers is difficult, and we have no operational control over them. The acquisition by ARP will definitely stabilize the situation of both companies and provide them with financing. We are determined and we need to regain real impact on what is happening in the companies,” said ARP president Marcin Chludziński. The legendary Gdańsk shipyard, a birthplace of the Solidarity movement is owned by Taruta who controls 81.9 percent of the company, while ARP holds the remaining 18 percent, Both sides own 50 percent stake in GSG Towers which produces towers for wind farms. In October ARP signed a letter of intent with the Gdańsk Shipyard Group (GSG), whose purpose was enabling the long-term development of the Gdańsk Shipyard. The letter specified, among others the conditions of the due diligence process, which was to be carried out at Gdańsk Shipyard and GSG Towers before making business decisions regarding their operating rules and forms of operations in the future.