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Far Eastern shipping giant FESCO recently signed a deal to purchase M-Port Ltd., the company which operates Vladivostok’s Marine Commercial Port, a press statement from the company said Monday.

FESCO, or Far Eastern Shipping Company, intends to buy a 100-percent stake of the port operator, which controls 92.5 percent of the port’s shares, facilitating FESCO’s strategic advance towards a stronger position in Russia’s market.

The long-term deal consists of two stages, the first of which is the purchase of a 50- percent stake in the operator, previously held by Magnitogorsk Metallurgic Plant, for $90 million.

In the second stage, which is to take place in three years, FESCO will buy the other 50 percent of M-Port to receive full control over Vladivostok’s Marine Commercial Port. The cost will be determined by the two parties according to FESCO’s financial situation at the time of the purchase, the statement reported.

Once the deal has been fulfilled, FESCO will have port assets in Russia’s three major port regions – the Pacific Ocean and the Baltic and Black Seas, the statement said.

“For FESCO it is not simply a financial investment. It is a long-term strategic alliance with one of the most important port assets of the Far Eastern basin,” Chairman Siman Povaryonkin of the company’s board of directors was quoted as saying. According to him, the alliance will lead to the active development and modernization of the port, which has vast prospects.

According to the port’s General Director Vyacheslav Pertsev, Vladivostok’s Marine Commercial Port and FESCO will be able to more efficiently offer their services, such as shipping cars, containers and other cargo, the statement said.

FESCO is controlled by Industrial Investors, led by former Energy Minister Sergei Generalov, with a 64 percent stake. It has also sold a stake to Swedish fund manager East Capital.