ThyssenKrupp scraps Abu Dhabi deal

ThyssenKrupp, Germany's biggest steelmaker, has scrapped a deal for Abu Dhabi MAR to buy its Blohm and Voss civilian shipbuilding assets, citing political changes in the Middle East. ThyssenKrupp — which also builds submarines, mega-yachts, engineering plants and elevators — said yesterday a separate planned joint venture with ADM to sell naval surface ships to the Middle East and North Africa had also fallen apart. It also said it had won a contract worth about €2 billion (Dh10.65 billion) to build six Class 214 submarines for Turkey and affirmed its strategy of focusing only on military shipbuilding. Management board member Olaf Berlien said the commercial drivers for a deal no longer existed because the political landscape in the Middle East had changed. An existing deal for ADM to buy the civilian shipbuilding assets from HDW Gaarden in the northern German city of Kiel  where mega-yachts and container ships are made — remained in place, ThyssenKrupp said. ADM, a shipbuilding group owned by the Al Ain International Group and Privinvest, and Thyssen-Krupp originally signed the agreements in 2009. The deal came after Germany's shipbuilding industry, the largest in Europe, slumped in the recession and as clients ran into financing problems and orders for mega-yachts and container ships dried up. Greece crisis At the same time, collection of payment for submarines for the Greek navy was marred as Greece tumbled into a debt crisis. ThyssenKrupp shares were 1.9 per cent lower yesterday, making them the worst performers on the German blue-chip index. ThyssenKrupp will retain the jewel of its shipbuilding assets — Howaldswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel — which makes submarines for Germany and its Nato partners. The 165-year-old HDW shipyard was the birthplace of the modern submarine and the yard where Nazi Germany built U-boats. The ADM deal for civilian shipbuilding assets are bundled in three units of Blohm and Voss Shipyards and Services (BVSS), all based in Hamburg and involved in building mega-yachts and ships' components as well as repair.