Employment at Turku yard was a sensitive topic for both ruling parties the National Coalition and the Social Democrats.

It looked obvious that STX tried to press the Finnish government to first give a smaller sum which it would later use as a leverage for subsequent demands.

Instead, the government took another strategy – trying to find a new owner for Turku shipyard in secret from the Koreans and buying Helsinki-based naval engineering company Aker Arctic.

[2] Despite the high pressure, in December 2012 the government refused to provide the loan, with the formal excuse that EU does not allow giving subsidies to unprofitable companies.

Turku shipyard lost the order which went to French Saint-Nazaire located Chantiers de l'Atlantique where the government was more generous.

The company management did not want to make decisions but later the increasingly weakening situation forced STX to sell more of its property.

The Finnish government sought for a credible buyer for the yard and the German Meyer Werft was selected a strong candidate.

Discussion with Meyer Werft was opened by STX Finland board member Lauri Ratia who travelled to Papenburg under assignment of the Finnish government and in secret from his employer.

After hearing a cautiously positive answer Ratia contacted minister Vapaavuori who called the head of the family company Bernard Meyer.

Everything was done in secrecy because neither the Finnish government, nor Meyer Werft wanted that the Koreans knew about the plan because otherwise the price of the yard would have gone up.

The Finnish government started pushing the Korean owner; this step was under code name Project Santa Cruz.

Vapaavuori travelled to Korea in May 2014 telling that the government has found "an unnamed industrial partner" which is interested in Turku shipyard.

Meyer Werft representatives visited at Turku shipyard in the same month and their calculations showed that the yard could be operated profitably.

The company made a non-committing quotation for the yard, but buying was subject to having new orders in addition to the ones under construction.

Meyer Werft and Finnish state bought Turku shipyard from STX in August 2014 for a nominal price, which, however, included liabilities of about €20 million.