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FS Marjata, reconnaissance ship of the Norwegian secret service
Photo: Hinrich Bäsemann / picture alliance
The Norwegian government has temporarily stopped the planned sale of a ship engine manufacturer to a group based in Russia.
The Ministry of Justice and Security in Oslo announced on Tuesday that the planned takeover of Bergen Engines by the Russian Transmasch Holging (TMH) has been suspended for national security reasons.
Among other things, Bergen Engines maintains the engines of ships of the Norwegian Navy and, according to press reports, also those of the "Marjata", a reconnaissance ship of the Norwegian intelligence service.
One of the ship's main tasks is to monitor the Russian fleet in the Barents Sea.
The Justice Department said it could not be ruled out that selling the company would pose a security risk.
The sales process was therefore suspended until the result of a »sufficient evaluation«.
Purchase price: 150 million euros
Bergen Engines has been owned by the large engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce Power Systems (RRPS) in Friedrichshafen, part of the British Rolls-Royce Group, since 1999.
At the beginning of February, it announced that it would sell Bergen Engines to the TMH Group for around 150 million euros.
Transmasch is a Russian engineering conglomerate best known for its railroad business.
The group employs around 100,000 people and has offices in 25 countries.
Bergen Engines employs around 950 people and had a turnover of almost 280 million euros in 2019.
According to Russian media reports, 20 percent of the Transmasch group belong to the French company Alstom.
The remaining 80 percent are controlled by a group of Russian business people.
A direct involvement of the state is not known.
However, there are concerns in Norway about being too dependent on the Kremlin because the state railroad is one of the main customers of Transmasch.
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beb / dpa