Murmansk port sold

The company Kupets is the new owner of the Murmansk Fish Port after it on Monday won the sales auction on the key regional infrastructure object.

The company paid 1,026 billion rubles for the port, a 44 percent increase compared with the auction starting price, TASS reports. Another three bidders participated in the auction.

The auction came after two former unsuccessful attempts to sell the object. Both in 2008 and 2011, the bidders did not offer a sum considered satisfactory by the owner.

The Kupets company is a well-established stakeholder in the regional fish industry and has for a number of years cooperated closely with the fish port administration. The company now intends to modernize port infrastructure and also enhance the role of oil and coal companies, TASS informs. 

The Murmansk Fish Port is one of the biggest fish processing facilities in the Russian North. In the first 11 months of 2015 it handled a total of 338,800 tons of goods, of which 199,000 was fish products, the port informs in a press release.