Finnlines Posts Best Ever Annual Figures

Finnlines Finnish ferry operator Finnlines, part of the Italian Grimaldi Group, delivered a record financial performance in 2016 despite a slow economic growth in Europe. The companys profit for the period was EUR 68.1 million (USD 72 million), representing a 20 percent increase over the 2015 financial year, which was then the best ever result in Finnlines’ history. For the fourth year in a row, we recorded an improvement in operating profit to date even though Europe’s economic growth has not yet picked up. In addition, the prevailing sanctions and counter sanctions in Russian trade continued to impact negatively on commercial activities across the Baltic Sea region, Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO of Finnlines, commented. According to Emanuele Grimaldi, the rise in the companys annual results was achieved partly due to the successful implementation of EUR 1 billion Capex Programme in 2006–2016 which is targeted towards fleet renewal. In addition, Grimaldi said the growth in profit occurred due to Finnlines ability to react quickly to changes in the market in an effort to optimize the use of vessels and routes and control costs. With the Capex Programme and an EUR 100 million Environmental Technology Investment Programme, Finnlines CEO said the company has been able to reduce the fuel consumption as well as the NOx, CO2 and SO2 emissions. As disclosed, Finnlines plans to lengthen several roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessels in the future, aiming at achieving greater operational efficiency. In 2016, Finnlines revenue stood at EUR 473.7 million, a decrease of 7.3 percent compared to a revenue of EUR 511.2 million in 2015. The fall in revenue was mainly due to the reduction of cargo related bunker surcharge, the company said. In 2016, Grimaldi acquired all shares in Finnlines. Following this, Finnlines was officially delisted from Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange. Finnlines fleet is currently comprised of a total of 20 vessels, the firms data shows.