The Grimaldi Group has acquired the title of ownership of last minority shares of its finnish subsidiary Finnlines Plc, getting thus control of 100% of the company. As a result, Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd has decided to delist the Finnlines shares from the official list of Nasdaq Helsinki, the company said in its press release.
The top management of the Grimaldi Group has decided to increase its controlling share in the finnish daughter company, completing an acquisition process which started back in 2005, after careful evaluation of several investment options.
While the economic crisis strongly affected the maritime industry since 2008, during the last decade Finnlines, thanks to the dedication of its top management and the assistance of its mother company, managed to strengthen its operational and economic performances by rationalising rotations, selling non-core assets, redelivering chartered tonnage, chartering out or selling redundant vessels, increasing productivity and reducing fuel consumption. Beside nearly 1 bln€ investment in newbuilt cutting-edge green fleet units, the company invested in last two years € 100 million in environmental technology improvements to its fleet, like scrubbers, propulsion systems and reblading, and in "silicon paint" hull projects for better fuel economy. As a result, Finnlines now has the youngest and most modern and efficient fleet in the Baltic Sea.
On the financial field, Finnlines broke records quarter after quarter during the 2015 financial year, and for the first semester of 2016 it registered an EBITDA of € 64.7 million (+ 25.6 %) and a result of € 30.5 million (+ 85.9 %). These figures are a strong indication that the company has proactively taken the right measures to consolidate its market position.
The performances of Finnlines have been awarded with several prizes and recognitions. In 2015, the outstanding financial performance was recognized by the analysts of Marine Money International in their annual publication on the best listed shipping companies, where Finnlines ranked first in Return to shareholders performance. This year, Finnlines has been selected as one of the ten finalists for the Ruban d'Honneur in the "Environmental & Corporate Sustainability" category of European Business Awards. It was the sole representative of Finland in its category.
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. In synergy with the Grimaldi Group, the Finnish company's services are connected to the whole Grimaldi network and to the US East Coast via Atlantic Container Line.