Polish shipbuilding company Crist has signed a preliminary agreement for the purchase of Stocznia Gdynia’s large drydock, one of the latter firm’s largest assets. The firm won with a bid of zł.175 million.

The other bidder was Cyprus-based firm Patia, which according to Rzeczpospolita, has links to Ukrainian company ISD, part-owner of Stocznia Gdańsk.

Representatives from the losing side have raised concerns about Crist’s bid.

Krzysztof Feluch of Stocznia Gdańsk’s supervisory board said it was enough to consider the difference in potential between the two bidding companies, especially those differences related to financial capabilities.

“We were prepared to put forward zł.165 million, which would come only from our own capital,” Mr Feluch told Gazeta Wyborcza.

Crist, however, submitted the higher bid, with zł.150 million of the zł.175 million coming from Bud-Bank Leasing, a subsidiary of the Treasury’s Industrial Development Agency (ARP).

“This situation raises many questions. We will took into this, we have to gather more information,” said Mr Feluch.

Though the government closed Stocznia Gdynia because it required constant subsidies, the ARP’s spokesman said the agency was supporting an initiative to boost the Polish economy.
“We had insufficient time to build up a banking consortium to finance this investment, so we decided to use the ARP program,” Andrzej Szwarc, plenipotentiary for Crist’s management board, told Gazeta Wyborcza. “We will pay back the loan. We have the know-how and contracts,” he added.

Deputy Treasurer Zdisław Gawlik said this was not a case of public aid. “From what I know, the loan was given by the ARP on market terms,” he said.

“What market terms?” a manager from ISD responded rhetorically, according to Gazeta Wyborcza, adding that no bank would have been willing to finance the bidders.