Croatia’s largest shipyard goes bankrupt due to sanctions against VTB

Croatia’s largest shipyard goes bankrupt due to sanctions against VTB

Croatia’s largest shipyard goes bankrupt due to sanctions against VTB
Brodosplit Shipyard has begun preliminary bankruptcy proceedings.  The firm applied to the Economic Court of Split on 27 April.  As noted in a statement of management, the company did not have time to withdraw two loans issued by the Russian bank VTB.

In 2022, Brodosplit will celebrate its 100th anniversary.  The company emerged from the merger of several companies in the region, turning into a large Croatian shipyard.

Until 2013, the government was the owner of the plant.  Later, the company was privatized.  The DIV group of companies became its main beneficiary.  The owner carried out the modernization of the enterprise, having reduced the number of employees from 4 thousand to 2.3 thousand people.

Loans from VTB were to be used to complete the construction of two large ships.

DIV Group financed the project for ˆ30 million, while the total cost of the work was estimated at ˆ150 million. Therefore, the company's management expected ˆ120 million from a Russian credit institution.

In April 2022, the situation was complicated by the EU sanctions against VTB, which were joined by the Croatian authorities.  By this time, two ships were already being built on the stocks of the shipyard.  At the same time, the company did not manage to receive the entire amount of the loan from VTB, having accepted only ˆ82 million.

The attempts of the management to seek financial assistance from the government, to withdraw the previously concluded contract with VTB from sanctions or to obtain a loan from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development were not successful.  Unlike South Korea, where the country's authorities agreed to help shipbuilding companies survive the geopolitical crisis, the Croatian government did not have money to save the shipyard.

As a result, the company's management was forced to send 1.5 thousand employees that were engaged in the construction of large ships on indefinite leave, and the remaining 600 employees retained their jobs only due to the fact that the company had contracts with the Ministry of Defense, which ordered the plant to produce patrol boats.

25.05.2022