Berlin/Sochi, Russia - Igor Yusufov, a former Russian energy minister and current board member of state gas giant Gazprom, is to buy bankrupt German shipbuilding firm Wadan Yards, the Berlin government announced Friday.

Wadan Yards, based in the Baltic ports of Waremuende and Wismar, makes ferries, freight vessels and icebreakers.

The sale price for the company is to be around 40 million euros (57 million dollars). Around 900 jobs at the yards will be lost, a government statement said.

The company's creditors have yet to approve the proposal.

The proposed deal was announced as German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.(dpa)