The Hellenic Minister of National Defense, Prof. Dr. Evangelos Venizelos and the Hellenic Minister of Finance Giorgos Papakonstantinou together with Dr. Hans Christoph Atzpodien, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems AG and Iskandar Safa, Chairman and CEO of Abu Dhabi MAR LLC, signed the contracts to implement the Framework Agreement in Athens on September 30, 2010.

Dr. Olaf Berlien, member of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG: “The signing of the contracts is a great success with benefits for all three participating parties. After long negotiations we have succeeded in securing the future of the shipyard and Greek expertise in submarine construction will be preserved. ”

Talks on an overall solution for Hellenic Shipyards and a mutually agreed ending of the ongoing arbitration proceedings had been taking place between representatives of the Greek government on the one side and Abu Dhabi MAR and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems on the other since December 2009. On March 18, 2010 this package solution gave rise to a Framework Agreement which had been signed by all three parties. The agreement provides for the transfer of 75.1% of the shares in the Greek shipyard to Abu Dhabi MAR, the acceptance of the submarines built to date and the purchase of two further Class 214 submarines as part of the existing Neptune II program (instead of two Class 209 modernizations).

The Implementation Agreement will become effective upon closing which is expected to take place in October 2010.

Since acquiring HSY in 2005 ThyssenKrupp has expanded the shipyard into a state-of-the-art submarine manufacturing site in the Mediterranean region.