Bo-Lennart Thorbjörnsson interviewed the CEO of Attica Group, Mr Spiros Paschalis.
Molslinjen Buys Danske Færger
On 10 October 2018, the Competition Authority approved the transfer from all shares from Danske Færger A/S to Molslinjen A/S.
Sellers are Bornholmstrafikken Holding A/S and Clipper Group A/S.
Molslinjen currently operates the ferries Aarhus-Odden and Ebeltoft-Odden, and since 1 September 2018 also the ferries on Bornholm.
Molslinjen will continue the four Færgen ferry routes under the following names:
- Bøjden-Fynshav = Allinjen (formerly Alsfærgen)
- Esbjerg-Fanø = Fanølinjen (Fanøfærgen)
- Kalundborg-Samsø = Samsølinjen (Samsøfærgen)
Spodsbjerg-Taars = Langelandslinjen (Langelandsfærgen)
Until all condition shave been met, Danske Færger A/S will continue under the same management and in accordance with the same business principles as before.
Following the new orders for Finnlines signed with the Chinese shipbuilder Jinling earlier this year (three ice-class ro-ro vessels), Grimaldi Group of Italy is launching a new project for a series of ‘Super Star’ ro-pax ferries.
“They will be the evolution of the Star Class units built by Fincantieri in Italy and as for the capacity they have 300 cabins and roughly 5,000 lane metres capacity” Emanuele Grimaldi told at the annual EuroMed Convention, held in Athens.
“We would be very pleased to build them in Europe since there are several shipyards like Visentini and Fincantieri in Italy and also some others in Germany skilled for that” Grimaldi added, specifying that they are obviously looking “for a good price”.
The project phase for the Super Star class will take at least one year and afterwards the Italian ferry group will start negotiating with the shipyards.
After closing 2017 with 3 million passengers and 2018 expected to close at 4 million, Grimaldi Group of Italy is now watching at the 5 million as the new annual threshold to reach before the end of 2019.
The new ambitious target was revealed by Emanuele Grimaldi at the Euromed Convention held in Athens, Greece, where he also revealed that today the passenger business accounts just for 10% on the total turnover of € 3 billion.
Talking about the local market he said that Grimaldi Group’s future plans are to offer more services to Greek islands: “New route to Chania, new services to Cyclades Islands, new services to Corfù from Southern, Central and Northern Italy, and more connections also to Greece mainland”.
But Emanuele Grimaldi emphasized also more connection to Greek mainland talking about “increased cargo and passengers capacity from/to Venice and Brindisi and more global connections via Brindisi and via Euromed/deep-sea connections”.
At the traditional EuroMed Convention held in Athens this year, Grimaldi Group’s ceo Emanuele Grimaldi mentioned Minoan’s financial results speaking of a “10 year long race” recalling that the Greek subsidiary until 2010 had €500 million debts and €35.9 million operating losses per year, while in 2017/2018 is debt free and obtained “the best results in Greece among the ferry operators”.
Given this scenario, Grimaldi underlined again that “consolidation is a must for the ferry market” and that the group he heads is watching “at 20 potential firms to be taken over in the future”.
He also added that three of Minoan’s ferries will be equipped with scrubbers before summer 2019.
On 5 October, BC Ferries issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) for the procurement of five new major vessels.
- The competitive bidding process is open to all shipyards, including consortiums.
- Vessels to enter service in 2023.
- To replace QUEEN OF ALBERNI, QUEEN OF NEW WESTMINSTER, QUEEN OF COWICHAN, and QUEEN OF COQUITLAM. Plus an additional vessel to address forecasted increases in traffic in the coming years, and to build resiliency in the fleet.
- Focus on ecology.
- After RFEOI the next step will be a Request for Pre-Qualification, followed by a Request for Proposals.
Ro-pax STENA NORDICA entered service as the fourth ship between Karlskrona and Gdynia on Saturday 6 October.
The reason is the growing demand for freight and passengers.
Before the route had 3 ro-pax and 1 ro-ro. Now there are up to 4 departures a day from each port, with a weekly total of 46 departures.
The 4 ro-pax now: STENA VISION, STENA SPIRIT, STENA BALTICA and STENA NORDICA.
Baleària maintains six weekly departures in each direction between the ports of Málaga and Melilla, with ro-pax DÉNIA CIUTAT CREATIVA.
Baleària operates this route through the Alboran Maritime Company, a company owned 50% by Baleària and Marítima Peregar.
Damen Shipyards Group has appointed Chiel de Leeuw to the newly-created position of Sales Director Ro-Pax. This marks an important step in its strategy of expanding into the design and build of larger, one-off vessels in the offshore, cruise and Ro-Pax sectors.
Tallink Amends Group Dividend Policy And Intends To Reduce The Company’s Share Capital
The Management Board of Tallink Grupp adopted a decision to supplement the Group’s dividend policy. With the decision the Group’s dividend strategy foresees the payment of dividends in the amount of 0.05 EUR per share going forward, the company’s financial results permitting.
In addition, the Group’s Supervisory Board gave the Group’s Management Board the instruction to prepare a proposal for the 2019 general shareholders’ meeting to reduce the company’s share capital by at least 7 cents per share. The aim of the reduction is to improve the company’s capital structure.