A new Ciserv company to serve the Baltic region

Wärtsilä Corporation, Press release 14 March 2005 at 14:00 UTC+2

Wärtsilä Corporation and the BLRT Grupp of Estonia will set up a joint venture to service ships in the Baltic area. The joint venture will be owned 51% by Wärtsilä and 49% by the BLRT Grupp. Establishing a service company is integral to Wärtsilä’s strategy of strengthening its position as the Total Service supplier to its marine customers.

The new company will be named Oü Ciserv BLRT Baltica and it will provide a single source of marine service covering all aspects of ship repair including servicing of engines, gearboxes, propellers, and other ship equipment.

Ciserv BLRT Baltica will operate in Tallinn, Estonia. The new company will start with some 65 employees in Tallinn but with the facility to draw on the extensive resources of both Ciserv and the BLRT Grupp according to the needs of individual service jobs.

The joint venture will bring significant benefits to the customers of both Ciserv and the BLRT Grupp, as well as to the companies themselves. Ciserv BLRT Baltica will extend the delivery of Ciserv products and services to the major markets of the Baltic and Eastern Europe. It will provide Ciserv customers with full shipyard repair facilities in the Baltic region.

Ciserv
The Ciserv group is a fast growing global network of service companies. Ciserv delivers a wide range of fast, cost effective, local support for 2-stroke and 4-stroke diesel engines and a variety of ship equipment including propulsion systems, auxiliary equipment, boilers, control and automation equipment and general steelwork.

Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä is The Ship Power Supplier for builders, owners and operators of vessels and offshore installations. Our own global service network takes complete care of customers’ ship machinery at every lifecycle stage. Wärtsilä is a leading provider of power plants, operation and lifetime care services in decentralized power generation.

With a worldwide network of 130 offices and workshops in 60 countries providing a service workforce of some 6000 persons, Wärtsilä is able to provide the best possible support for system solutions, equipment maintenance, on time deliveries and also plant operation.

BLRT Grupp
BLRT Grupp is one of the largest enterprises in Estonia, and also in the Eastern Baltic. Growing from ship repair activities in Tallinn, it now focuses on ship repair, shipbuilding, fabrication of steel structures, machine building, and scrap metal processing. The group has shipyards in Tallinn and Klaipeda, Lithuania. The majority of its customers are in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Baltic countries.

For further information, please call:

Mr Bo Dahlén, Managing Director, Wärtsilä Sweden AB, Tel. +46 31 744 46 40.

Mr Alexander Zaporozhtsev, Chief Internal Auditor, BLRT Grupp AS, Tel. + 372 6102 382