The Canadian shipbuilding company Davie has completed the acquisition of the Finnish shipyard Helsinki Shipyard of Helsinki, the value of which has not been disclosed by the parties specifying, however, that Davie, in addition to committing its own resources for the operation, it benefited from a loan of 77 million of the Government of Quebec in the form of the purchase of shares in Davie for a total of €30 million and a loan of €47 million. Pointing out that a substantial part of the of these funds will be used to ensure that the construction site has working capital while resuming operations and works to secure new orders, Davie and Helsinki Shipyard highlighted that the Canadian government has positively assessed the the potential synergies generated by the transaction in relation to the the construction of icebreaker units as part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, Canada's renewal program of the Navy and Coast Guard fleet of the Canada. Through a competition, in fact, the task of building unity under this programme has been awarded to the Canadian shipyards Davie, Vancouver Shipyards and Irving Shipbuilding.

The recent history of Helsinki Shipyard, whose origins date back to until 1865, it was characterized by Russian ownership of the Finnish company that in 2010, when its company name was Arctech Helsinki Shipyard, had seen the entrance to its own capital of the Russian shipbuilding company United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). The latter in 2014 had acquired the entire ownership of the Finnish company, 100% of the capital that in 2019 had passed to the Cypriot Algador Holdings, a Russian-owned company and the latest owner of the Finnish shipyard before the transfer to Davie.

The problems for Helsinki Shipyard had begun to escalate when the European Union and the US had imposed the first sanctions against Russia that directly affected society USC, with luxury cruise ships building for the Swan Hellenic company that the latter had to award by tender as the sale had been blocked because Russian funding had been involved in the operation and with the Finnish Government, which had banned Helsinki Finland from export icebreaker units to Russia. Problems they had resulted in a reduction in the activity of the plant, and whereas, with the tightening of sanctions due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, they had in practice forced the construction site into inactivity.

Commenting on the change of ownership, the minister Minister of Finance, Wille Rydman, who spoke in the acquisition negotiations by negotiating with the counterpart of the Quebec, Pierre Fitzgibbon, said he was "convinced that with the new owner, the future of the shipyard and of the entire Finnish maritime industry will be more bright. Davie, Rydman recalled, got the green light to participate in the National Shipbuilding Strategy of the Canada, in which it is intended to build for the State, By the way, seven icebreakers. In addition, Rydman pointed out This is very positive from the point of view of the Finnish state that the change of ownership took place under conditions of market'.

The Finnish minister recalled that his objective was to to take away the ownership of the Helsinki shipyard from the Russians, "but without burdening Finnish taxpayers with further burdens financial charges, as there are already enough in relation to other construction sites. This line of mine - Rydman specified - is has been challenging to pursue in practice, given that currently The global shipbuilding industry doesn't really stand a chance to operate without some sort of participation of the authorities Public. However, things got off to a good start when, in September, I was able to negotiate this issue with Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Contemporary Art of the Economy of Québec'.

"They are," the Finnish minister continued, "very satisfied and proud of this final result. The Risks associated with Russian ownership have been removed and the In its place there is a solid and reliable Western partner. In In this way, the financial commitment of the Finnish taxpayer is not increased by just one euro'.

"It's fantastic," he added, "that the construction site Helsinki Naval Aviation Base continues to operate and that the economic structure of the of my naval city remains as large as possible. The shipyard has a long history and excellent know-how especially in the icebreaker and other ships travelling on ice'.