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Finland % The New Name of Finnish Shipbuilding The announced merger of Kvaerner Masa-Yards and Aker Finyards — both members of the Aker Yards Groups — draws to a conclusion nearly a decade of change within the Finnish shipbuilding community, while providing the techni- cally talented and market capable com- pany with a clear vision for the future. Long an elite member of the world's select fraternity of "high value ship" builders, the Finnish maritime commu- nity has built and maintained a leader- ship in several technically demanding categories — cruise shipping, LNG car- riers and ice ship technology, to name but a few — despite the country's rela- tively small size, environmental chal- lenges and fierce competition from lower cost competitors in the Far East Aker Yards Group recently announced the merger of Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc. and Aker Finnyards Inc.; the new com- pany to be named Aker Finnyards, with effect January 1, 2005. The Deal Masa-Yards will acquire Aker Finnyards share capital and change its name into Aker Finnyards. In connec- tion with the acquisition, the present Aker Finnyards will change its name into Aker Finnyards Rauma and func- tion as a subsidiary to Aker Finnyards until next year, when the subsidiary will be merged with Aker Finnyards. "Combining our two cruise- and ferry specialized shipyards bring valuable synergies and strengthens their competi- tive position in the global cruise- and ferry markets. It is also a natural contin- uation to our efforts in streamlining our operations," said Karl Erik Kjelstad. CEO and President of Aker Yards. "We can easily draw parallels with this merg- er to the earlier mergers between our German shipyards in Wismar and The Ultra Voyager cruise ships — the second recently ordered by Royal Caribean — will be the largest cruise ships in the world at 160,000 gt. The ships will be 15 percent larger than the origi- nal Voyager class ship, which is pictured here. Rostock-Warnemiinde and the ongoing merger between our Norwegian ship- yards, Aker Brattvaag and Aker Langsten." The integration process will be lead by Yrjd Julin, who will contin- ue as President for Aker Finnyards, (the previous Kvaerner Masa-Yards). The management team will consist of Senior Vice President, Business Development and Shipbuilding Projects Bo-Erik Blomqvist; Senior Vice President, Finance Jyrki Heinimaa: Senior Vice President, Design Sauli Eloranta; Senior Vice President, Purchasing Jussi Voima, Senior Vice President, Production Erik Skogstrdm, and Senior Vice President, Human Resources Marko Konu. Mr. Blomqvist will also function as Deputy to the President. He will also be responsible for Marketing and Sales. "Kvaerner Masa-Yards and Aker Finnyards strategies complete each other. The merger gives us a firm foun- dation to further develop our strategy to be the global market leader in the cruise- , ferry- and technically complex vessel business. After the merger we can con- 32 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News
