# Novorossiysk Shipping Company

Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship) was a Russian shipping company and one of the largest in the country. The full name was Public Joint-Stock Company "Novorossiysk Shipping Company". The headquarters were located in Novorossiysk.

## History

The company was founded in 1964.
In 1967, it became an independent enterprise, as on 20 January 1967, the tanker division of the Black Sea Shipping Company separated. The fleet was transferred to the Novorossiysk Shipping Company, founded in 1964, with the aim of effectively managing the operations of the oil tanker fleet and ports in the Black Sea basin, eliminating multi-tiered management, and more promptly addressing transportation issues with the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR and other interested organizations.
In 1992, the company was privatized.
In mid-June 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to form a new company based on Sovcomflot and Novoship. According to this decree, within nine months, the 50.34% state-owned share in Novoship would be contributed to the charter capital of Sovcomflot. As expected, the merger would create a shipping company that would be among the top five largest tanker carriers in the world. The capitalization of the new company was estimated to be $3.5-4 billion.

## Directors of the Shipping Company

* O.A. Sychennikov (1964–1977)
* V.D. Pavlenko (1977–1986)
* L.I. Loza (from 1987)

## Ownership and Management

In December 2007, the 50.34% stake (67.13% of the voting shares) that was federally owned was contributed to the charter capital of Sovcomflot. Additionally, at the end of December 2007, Sovcomflot made a mandatory offer to purchase 36.3 million ordinary shares of Novoship (9.66% of the total number of ordinary shares and 7.2% of the share capital) from minority shareholders at a price of 81.82 rubles per share.
Another 4.45% and 17.45% were owned by the 100% subsidiaries of the shipping company Novoshipinvest and Intrigue Shipping respectively. The company's capitalization on the RTS as of mid-June 2007 was $808.1 million.
As of June 2014, the main shareholder was Sovcomflot OJSC, with 98.28% of the voting shares.
The company's president was Alexey Haikudov.

## Operations

The main business of the shipping company was the maritime transportation of oil, dark and light petroleum products. The fleet of Novoship consisted of 60 vessels with a deadweight of 3.7 million tons.
The company employed over 5,500 people. The company's revenue for 2006, according to IFRS, amounted to $560.98 million (in 2005, it was $430 million), and net profit was $181.02 million (in 2005, it was $244.6 million).

## Subsidiaries and Affiliates

* Sotsinsky Marine Commercial Port OJSC – passenger port
* NovoTechService LLC – provision of household, loading and unloading, transportation, forwarding services, and works
* ElectroRadioNavigation Chamber LLC – navigation services, deviation work
* Water Sports Center LLC – organization and development of water sports
* Novoship Training UTC NPO ("Novoship Training") – training, preparation, and retraining of the crew
* Ship Service Center LLC – technical inspection of equipment, ship maintenance

## Incidents Involving Company Vessels

On 5 May 2010, Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden hijacked the Moscow University tanker, which was flying the Liberian flag and belonged to Novoship. The ship, which was en route from the Red Sea to China, was carrying 86,000 tons of oil. Previously, in April 2009, another Novoship tanker, the NS Commander, was also attacked by Somali pirates, but the attack was repelled.
The hijacked tanker was freed the next day by the crew with the assistance of the Russian anti-submarine ship Marshal Shaposhnikov. The crew of the tanker was unharmed, and all the pirates were detained.
Another ship of the company attacked by pirates was the NS Commander tanker.