In addition to the existing vessels, specialized marine and defense equipment will be manufactured in Szczecin – assures Jan Ruud de Jonge, CEO of Polskie Stocznie, a company managing the shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin. QInvest, a Qatar investment bank, is the owner of the company – informed Aleksander Grad, the Minister of Treasury, on 30 June.

De Jonge is the CEO of Polskie Stocznie, which is to manage the shipyards in Szczecin and Gdynia. In the transaction involving purchase of the shipyard, he acted on behalf of Stitching Particulier Funds, which in turn represented QInvest in the tender procedure. QInvest is a financial institution investing all over the world, with Qatar Islamic Bank being its major shareholder.

However, was it QInvest that bought the shipyard? According to the “Rzeczpospolita” daily, the company announced that it only acted as an intermediary, so the final investor remains unknown.

At present, it is clear that the registered office of Polskie Stocznie will be located in Warsaw, where the management board will be seated and meetings of the company’s supervisory board convened. According to the information provided by the Minister of Treasury, the funds for the shipyard will be transferred on 21 July.

Specialist vessels and warships

De Jonge claims to be aware of the specifics of the Polish shipyards as he knows the ships they designed. In his view, in addition to the existing vessels, specialized marine equipment and warships may be manufactured in Szczecin, while LNG transport ships in Gdynia.

Over the last few days, the shipyard contract has been another transaction concluded by the State Treasury with a Qatar counterparty, which pertains to Pomorze Zachodnie. On 29 June, Minister Aleksander Grad and Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Qatar Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Energy and Industry, signed a contract for LNG deliveries to Poland. The liquefied natural gas is to be transported to Poland through an LNG terminal which will be opened in Świnoujście in 2014.

Officially, the above two contracts are not linked.

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