16 Jul 2019 11:33

Incorporating Rosmorport will expand options to finance port projects - CEO

MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) - The incorporation of Rosmorport (RMP), a division of Russia's Federal Maritime and River Transport Agency, will make it possible to more effectively develop port infrastructure and utilize a full range of financing instruments, the state company's CEO, Andrei Lavrischev said.

"We believe that incorporating Rosmorport will make it possible to significantly increase the effectiveness of its activities and accountability of management, and expand possibilities for the company's participation in the development of port infrastructure by using the whole range of available mechanisms of financing and public-private partnerships," Lavrischev told reporters.

Rosmorport's operation in the form of a federal state unitary enterprise limits the company's development, he said.

"We hope to begin the active phase this year. A bill on the company's incorporation has gone through public hearings and has been sent to the Justice Ministry," Lavrischev said. The ministry's opinion is expected in a month.

The concept for incorporation assumes that the new joint-stock company will amount to the same conglomerate of various types of businesses that the state company now sustains, Rosmorport deputy CEO Yakov Bykov said. "Without any divisions, restructuring," he added.

"Since it will retain the status of a strategic company, [which is] not disputed by any party, not by us or by our owner, I assume that 100% of shares will remain in the ownership of the Russian Federation," Bykov said.

The incorporation of Rosmorport has been considered for over ten years. The Transport Ministry drafted a federal bill on reorganizing the company into a joint-stock company in 2017.

Rosmorport is one of the largest owners of onshore and port infrastructure in Russia and has one of the country's largest service and auxiliary fleets. The company operates at 65 seaports in 24 regions of Russia, and has a fleet of 260 vessels, including 35 icebreakers and icebreaker tugboats.