Finnlines says it has published Financial Statements 2019 and Financial Review January–December 2019.
Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO, comments in conjunction with the review:
“The Finnlines Group’s revenue for January–December was EUR 574.8 (589.4 in 2018) million reflecting the lower volumes in Finland’s trade over the preceding year. Result before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, EBITDA, was EUR 169.8 (166.4) million. The result for the reporting period was EUR 98.3 million in January–December 2019, compared to EUR 95.1 million during the corresponding period in 2018. The 2019 result follows our successful track record over the past years.
In 2019, we continued to focus on fundamentals, i.e. dedication to smart use of technology, digitalised and optimised processes across our businesses, investments in energy efficiency to advance sustainable development and effective execution of our strategy by our highly productive, skilled and committed employees. One topic in our strategic discussion is digitalisation. In recent years, we have invested a lot in information technology. We have implemented two major ERP systems, one in the port and the other relating to vessel efficiency monitoring and measurement. We have also developed mobile services in port operations. This development in digitalisation and automation increases the efficiency and effectiveness of our processes just to name a few examples.
Finnlines welcomes the IMO’s GHG strategy and its goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Finnlines is committed to long-term efforts for the environment. Environmental responsibility is part of our daily operations and includes everyday actions – like fleet changes and route optimisation, fuel monitoring or running at optimal speed, load and trim. Moreover – as a forerunner in sustainability – we have invested heavily during the past decade: in a new, technologically advanced tonnage, in R&D that supports emission reduction equipment and operations, but also in the highly skilled personnel. Above all, we have ordered five ultra green generation vessels, three green hybrid ro-ro vessels and two eco-efficient Superstar ro-pax vessels which represents a total investment worth EUR 0.5 billion. We will continue to deploy larger and larger vessels in order to benefit from economies of scale. Moreover, increased capacity on our vessels has reduced CO2 emissions per transported tonne.
Looking to 2020 and beyond, we will continue on our path, and make the right investments in line with our strategy in order to ensure the joint success with our customers. We are geared for growth – with the sustainable investment decision to order five Ultra Green Generation vessels, along with our actions taken to increase the Company’s efficiency, productivity and financial performance – we trust that we will continue to perform well in the years to come.”
Finnlines is a leading shipping operator of ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. The Company is a part of the Grimaldi Group, one of the world’s largest operators of ro-ro vessels and the largest operator of the Motorways of the Sea in Europe for both passengers and freight. This affiliation enables Finnlines to offer liner services to and from any destination in the Mediterranean, West Africa as well as the Atlantic coast of both North and South America.