The Company Development Fund will strengthen Polish shipyards

The location of Poland on the Baltic Sea makes our country highly socially and economically viable. This potential has not yet been fully exploited, particularly in the shipbuilding sector.

This is now to be changed by the reconstruction of the maritime and inland waterways economy and by the actions of the strategy for responsible development and reindustrialisation of the country. The Company Development Fund will play a special role in this process. It is a one-man company of the Treasury, supervised by the Minister of Maritime Economy. It is this entity that will play the role of a specialized financial vehicle in the consolidation of the shipbuilding industry.

The FRS was created in August 2016 and its assets base was increased as a result of the merger with 10 companies with State Treasury participation and recapitalisation made in 2017. The purpose of setting up the company was to support restructuring and financial activities for the State Treasury companies that required it. In autumn 2017, ownership supervision was transferred from the then Ministry of Development to the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Shipping. At the same time, new lines of work have been identified for the FRS, namely the broad support of the maritime and inland waterway sectors. The main task of the company is financial support on market terms and ownership supervision of selected shipbuilding companies – especially those that carry out key tasks related to conceptual preparation and construction of the first RO-PAX ferry under the Batory programme.

In June 2018, during the Inauguration of the 6th edition of the International Maritime Congress in Szczecin, a first step was taken towards consolidating the Polish shipbuilding industry – a letter of intent was signed on taking over the shares of the Marine Shiprepair Yard Gryfia and the shares of the Szczecin Industrial Park from the units subordinate to the Ministry of Defence to the FRS, i.e. the unit subordinate to the Ministry of Maritime Economy and inland navigation. The FRS has great competence, based on the experience of its employees in the banking and legal sectors, and this knowledge will be necessary in the process of improving the efficiency of the yard.

The company, in terms of corporate power over the acquired shipbuilding entities, sees the need to professionalise ownership supervision and build their sustainable value. Therefore, following the acquisition of ownership supervision, the FRS will take action closely related to the assumptions of the strategy for responsible development and implemented under the Batory programme. The actions of the FRS are intended to stabilise the financial condition of the Szczecin shipyards and significantly improve their efficiency so that they are fully capable, in operational, organisational and financial terms, of building the first ferry as soon as possible and of moving from ongoing project work to implementation.

This will be done through far-reaching support within its own resources, as well as assistance in obtaining funding. Importantly, the financial participation of FRS in the implementation of projects in this respect will be fully based on market, commercial and exclusion of any elements that could result in the company's activities being considered unlawful State aid.

W praktyce, w odniesieniu do procesu alokacji aktywów stoczniowych, będzie to system komunikacji celów i oczekiwań, jakie powinny być stawiane członkom rad nadzorczych i zarządom podległych spółek. Usprawni to i ureguluje m.in. dwustronny przepływ informacji o ryzykach i istotnych zdarzeniach wpływających na działalność spółek pomiędzy FRS a organem nadzoru w spółkach. W zakresie finansowania dłużnego, spółka zaproponuje instrumenty wspierające płynność finansową przedsiębiorstw, procesy restrukturyzacji oraz długoterminowe projekty inwestycyjne. Oferta finansowania obrotowego pozwala na pozyskanie środków służących finansowaniu bieżących zobowiązań przedsiębiorstwa, realizacji kontraktów i zamówień lub spłaty zadłużenia wobec innych banków.

Realizacja przez MSR Gryfia i SPP programu Batory, jak również podniesienie efektywności działania obydwu spółek oraz zapewnienie stabilnej sytuacji finansowej, stanowić będą priorytet działań FRS jako przyszłego właściciela. Zgodnie z założeniami, przejęcie nadzoru nastąpi jeszcze w tym roku.

Podpis: Anna Molędowska

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The material comes from an addition to the Rzeczpospolita journal dated 22 October 2018, prepared by the editorial board of the Shipyard Portal under the patronage of the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Shipping.