FEBRUARY 28, 2013 — Germany's troubled P+S Werften, which is currently under insolvency administration, has handed over coast guard vessel KBV 033 to the Swedish Coast Guard in a ceremony at its Peene shipyard in Wolgast.

The Swedish Coast Guard placed an order for a total of four vessels in 2008 and two were delivered in June and July of 2012. The shipbuilder filed for insolvency August 29, 2012 and a new contract for the completion of the two remaining vessels in the series was negotiated with the Swedish Coast Guard by Dr. Tobias Brinkmann, of insolvency administrators Brinkmann & Partner, and Axel Schulz, of P+S Werften GmbH, and was concluded in November 2012. The fourth vessel, KBV 034, is scheduled to be delivered to the Coast Guard in April.

Commodore Åke Dagnevik, director of new building at the Swedish Coast Guard said: "The coast guard vessel handed over to us today proves that with the quality of its shipbuilding and the experience and expertise of its team, the Peene shipyard is well-equipped for the future. We originally awarded the contract to build the coast guard vessels to the Peene shipyard in 2008 and re-signed it a year ago because we are convinced of the work of the team and the quality of the shipyard. Over the years, we have worked closely with the shipyard and have always had a team of around six engineers from the Swedish Coast Guard on site. This enabled us to further specify our requirements as time went by and, along with the team at the Peene shipyard, implement them more precisely in every process and detail. Coast guard vessel KBV 033, which we are receiving now, is the most sophisticated of this series so far."

"I would like to thank the Swedish Coast Guard for their confidence in the Peene shipyard and the great expertise of their employees. We are pleased that we were able to successfully renew the contract in the context of the insolvency proceedings and, in doing so, to secure employment for the Peene shipyard," said Dr. Tobias Brinkmann from the insolvency administrators Brinkmann & Partner. "The completion of the third coast guard vessel, handed over today, and the fourth, which is scheduled for delivery in a few weeks, are important milestones for P+S WERFTEN at this time. Both demonstrate the high level of performance of the Peene shipyard and its employees."

The Peene shipyard in Wolgast, which currently has 400 employees, will be taken over by the Lürssen Group of Bremen on May 1, 2013.

Coast guard vessel KBV 033 (Kustbevakningen Vessel)

The coast guard vessel KBV 033 is the third in a series of four vessels. The approx. 52 m long and 10 m wide special purpose vessels will be deployed by the Swedish Coast Guard to cover a wide range of tasks, such as monitoring shipping traffic in coastal areas, border security, customs duties and fishery protection.

The vessels are equipped for fighting fires at sea and in port, carrying out search and rescue (SAR) and cleaning up oil spills. Designed and built for a service life of 30 years, new vessels will be able to operate in the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Skagerrak and Kattegat, as well as on the second and third largest Swedish lakes, Vänern and Mälaren, as well as in European coastal areas, even in winter conditions at outside temperatures down to -25°C.