By John Helmer in Moscow Icebreaking is the key to the expansion of energy and mineral shipments in the Arctic. It is a little early for Russia to begin producing bananas and other soft, sun-dependent commodities. But depending on which global warming forecast you read, there may come a time when it will be cost-efficient […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 17th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow State-owned maritime fleet leader Sovcomflot is making a last-ditch bid to reap value for its bonus-holders before the Russian presidential election on March 2. But the lack of time isn’t the only catch. Sovcomflot ‘s bid to buy out minority shareholders of Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship) has been rejected by […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 17th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow President Vladimir Putin signed this week a decree allowing a limited association of Russia’s state controlled shipping companies, Sovcomflot and Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship). Promoted as a merger of the two, Putin’s brief decree, a text of which has been released publicly, puts a stop to a market selloff, which […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, June 21st, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow The only foreign-language sentence that managed to lodge itself correctly in the brain of Ronald Reagan, before he developed Alzheimer’s Disease, but after he became President of the United States, was “doveryai no proveryai”. As he never tired of explaining, that is Russian for “trust but verify.” Reagan and his […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 8th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Morgan Stanley has taken the plunge for its first-ever public investor offer of loan notes on behalf of a Russian maritime business — the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port. The bank is also touting for business as financial advisor to a possible initial public offering of shares for Russia’s two state […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 21st, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Limits on the transfer of shares between Russia’s state-controlled tanker companies, Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship) and Sovcomflot, will fall short of the ambition of Sergei Frank, former Transport Minister and chief executive of Sovcomflot for two years. An international IPO of what may be, potentially, the third largest oil tanker […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 10th, 2007
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