A business group of five companies have bought 99% of the shares of Bulgaria's "Rousse Shipyard", the river shipbuilder based in the Danube city of Ruse.

The deal was announced by the Rousse Shipyard on Friday without specifying the names and the nationality of the new owners of the troubled factory.

The Rousse Shipyard was founded in 1881. In April 1999, it was was privatized by Rousse Shipyard Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH – Germany.

In the past few months it saw intermittent protests by its workers over delayed salaries and reduced social benefits.

In early January 2011, the workers from the Rousse Shipyard Jsc declared civil disobedience as they had not received their salaries for three months. Dozens of workers are reported to have already left the plant despite the unemployment precisely because of the irregular payments.

The new unnamed shareholders of the Danube shipyard have declared their intention to continue to develop the basic activities of the plant – shipbuilding and ship repairing. They also said they are going to consolidate and capitalize the assets of the company, and have committed to securing funding for the shipyard, including from international financial institutions, and to regular payment of the salaries.

The new owners also said that they were in negotiations with existing and new clients in order to secure new orders for the shipbuilder.

On Sunday, the Rousse Shipyard will send off to Bulgaria's Varna on the Black Sea for tests a new dry cargo ship built at the order of Dutch company Wantij.