Ferry News Archive
Grimaldi adds to Finnlines stake
Date: 01 Sep 2006 00:00 Source: Lloyds ListGrimaldi Group supremo Emanuele Grimaldi has increased his company’s stake in Finnlines to more than 35%, vowing at the same time that this would be his last acquisition of shares in the Finnish shortsea specialist on the public market.
Mr Grimaldi said his latest purchase of an additional 4.9% of Finnlines takes his total stake to 35.4% or 14.4m shares. He has paid €217m ($278m) in the process for an average price per share of € 15.07.
He said this would be his last public share purchase, however, noting that under stock exchange and European Union rules he now has a three-year grace period in which to launch a public tender offer for the remaining shares.
He added that, as of now, it is likely that Naples-based Grimaldi will go ahead with a public offering for the remaining shares.
“With the shareholding we have now, I don’t think our position is challengeable,” he said.
“Now we have three years in which to analyse the company and the state of the market and decide whether or not to make a public offering. If I continued buying shares, it would only make it more difficult to go back.”
Grimaldi described its growing participation in Finnlines as “based on a project of industrial co-operation, commercial development and strategic alliance.”
It said the companies have “similar features and the co-operation between them will generate new logistics opportunities for their international clientele, linking Moscow with New York, Helsinki with Rio de Janeiro, Riga with Rome, always with a single bill of lading and consequently with one carrier responsible for the carriage of goods.”
Mr Grimaldi added that Finnlines “has made some important strategic decisions over recent years. The five ships it has ordered are perhaps the best in the Baltic. Operationally it is doing well, but it must do better financially.
“We now have a lot of time to see what can be done, with management, to improve results.”
The expansion of Grimaldi’s stake in Finnlines comes at a time when consolidation in this crowded market is, finally, proceeding apace.
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