Last 9th October, Grimaldi Euromed S.p.A., a company of the Grimaldi Group, proceeded with the purchase of additional shares of the Finnish subsidiary Finnlines Plc, thus increasing its investment in its sister company. After carefully evaluating several investment options, the top management of the Grimaldi Group decided to acquire 5,449,032 ordinary shares, corresponding to 10.58% of Finnlines’ share capital, from the Finnish pension fund Keskinäinen Eläkevakuutusyhtiö Ilmarinen, for a total amount of € 96,992.769,60. With this transaction, the Group holds today, through its various sister companies, 91.32% of the share capital of Finnlines.
The excellent economic results recently recorded by the Finnish company have prompted the Neapolitan shipping group to consolidate its shares in its subsidiary rather than investing in other activities.
This is a sign of confidence in Finnlines for its very satisfactory results recorded in 2014 and 2015. In the first six months of 2015, Finnlines recorded a turnover of € 252 million, an EBITDA of € 51.5 million and a net profit of € 16.4 million (+ 9.2%). In particular, the 2015 second quarter results were the best of the last ten years with a turnover of € 135.20 million, an EBITDA of € 33.80 million and a net profit of € 15.8 million (+ 7.3%). These figures are a strong indication that the company has proactively taken the right measures to consolidate its market position.
The outstanding financial performance of Finnlines, listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, was also recently recognized by the analysts of Marine Money International in their annual publication on the best listed shipping companies, where the Finnish company ranked among the top ten. With one of the largest ro/ro and ro/pax fleets, Finnlines is the leading operator in the ro/ro and passenger transport in the Baltic and North Sea offering an extensive network of Motorways of the Sea between Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and Russia.
