Minoan Lines cruises toward higher profits, bigger share
Last year was one of the most profitable for local listed coastal shipping giant Minoan Lines. The group net profits came to almost -21.6 million, posting a 22.7 percent rise from 2005. Turnover reached -206.7 million (the highest ever in the company’s history), and its bank borrowing recorded a significant decline from -453.8 million in 2005 to -365.5 million in 2006, with shareholders expected to receive a dividend of -0.135 per share. What is more, the preliminary figures for this year appear particularly positive, company officials say, both in passenger and vehicle numbers and in bookings, which is a great sign for the course of the company’s revenues. Today Minoan Lines owns a fleet of six ships. Two of them connect Piraeus with Iraklion (Knossos Palace and Festos Palace), another two are on the Patras-Ancona route (Europa Palace and Olympia Palace), while Ikarus and Pasiphae Palace ferry passengers and vehicles from Patras to Venice and back. One of the main shareholders is Attica Holdings, with a 22.25 percent stake, along with EFG Private Bank Luxembourg with 4.99 percent and shipowner Panos Laskaridis with 4.89 percent. «The quality of our fleet, the drastic cut of borrowing by -88.2 million, the rationalization to a significant degree of the routes to the northern Adriatic Sea, as well as the decline noted in fuel prices, generate optimism in the administration of Minoan Lines for an even better course and healthy profits in the next few years,» Antonis Manidakis, the company’s CEO, told Kathimerini. Minoan’s turnover rose from -204.2 million in 2005 to -206.7 million last year, even though the fleet was reduced by one vessel as the Daedalos was sold for -8.4 million, which had been recorded in the company’s turnover for 2005. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came to -61.4 million in 2006 from -56 million in 2005. Net profits reached -18.3 million, up by 7.4 percent from 2005. In terms of the firm’s share in the market, in the northern Adriatic it achieved a 35.7 percent share in passengers, 37.5 percent in private cars and 35.2 percent in trucks. It carried 581,000 passengers, 154,000 cars and 91,000 trucks. On the Piraeus-Iraklion route, the company had a 71 percent market share in passengers, 62.1 percent in cars and 49.6 percent in trucks, which translates into 968,000 passengers, 126,000 cars and 66,000 trucks.
