Russian river fleet attracts investors

Russian river fleet is becoming more and more attractive to investors, including foreign.

Italian shipping company Pietro Barbaro launches the largest financing in the history of the Russian market of river transportation of US$80 million; Italians plan to create a fleet of 11 vessels. Their Russian company Prime Shipping will operate the fleet. Experts consider that Pietro Barbaro can take up to 15-20 percent of the Russian market of river transportation. In the summer of 2006, Pietro Barbaro bought Russian Prime Shipping from the British company Burren Energy, which at that time owned six vessels. Bank Intesa Sanpaolo and shipping group Pietro Barbaro agreed to spend US$80 million to create the tanker fleet, class 'river-sea', for the transportation of mineral oil on Volga-Don waterways and Caspian Sea. Last December Krasnoe Sormovo launched the fourth tanker, 5,000DWT for Pietro Barbaro. The cost of such vessel is about EUR10 million (US$15.7 million).

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