Corsica Ferries News

Cash-strapped ferry operator SNCM looks set to seek legal protection from its creditors after Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday it must pay back 220 million euros ($289 million) of French state aid. SNCM, owned 66 percent by transport group Transdev, has racked up losses as low-cost competitors have eaten away its market share and is fast running out of funds. Transdev - itself a joint venture between water and waste firm Veolia and French state bank CDC - has said it will…

Veolia Environnement, a global leader in water and waste management, has a little local difficulty: an ailing France-Corsica ferry operator that weighs on its shares, gives its CEO nightmares and puts the brakes on its strategic plans. At the end of 2012, new Chief Executive Antoine Frerot decided to get out of transport to focus Veolia on its higher-margin water, waste andenergy businesses, and agreed with state-owned Caisse des Depots (CDC) that it would gradually stake over Veolia's stake in their joint venture Transdev, which runs trains, buses and taxis in about 20 countries. CDC had one condition - that Veolia keep Transdev's 66 percent stake in Societe Nationale Corse Mediterranee (SNCM), a loss-making ferry operator that once had a monopoly on France-Corsica routes.

Corsica Ferries is first to tap into MCPs new entertainment and information platform for the ferry and cruise industry. Following a successful pilot, five vessels in the Mediterranean Ocean will be equipped with Value Adding Voyage Experience platform (VAVE) this summer. MCP said passengers will enjoy rich digital leisure opportunities from an innovative onboard digital entertainment and information solution. Access to Internet and entertainment services from personal devices is not something crew and passengers on cruise ships and ferries have been spoiled with.

The Spirit of Tasmania III has docked in Devonport for the final time. The Sydney-to-Devonport ferry made a low-key entrance to northern Tasmania on Monday, almost two months after its sale to Mediterranean operator Corsica Ferries. Spirit III's final voyage lacked the fanfare of its launch in January 2004, when it was billed as a tourism boon to the island state. Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon announced the ferry's sale in June, saying the loss-making vessel was no longer viable. Only a year before that, the government threw Spirit III a $115 million lifeline, but Mr Lennon said the domestic tourism decline had changed passenger forecasts. Corsica Ferries purchased the ferry for $111 million, which was $6 million more than its 2003 purchase price, in July.

According to reports, shipping industry sources have named European company Corsica Ferries as the successful bidder for the Spirit of Tasmania III.. The name of the bidder and financial details of the offer have remained a mystery when TT- Line announced that a memorandum of understanding had been signed for the sale. Sources close to the industry believe European company Corsica Ferries put in the winning bid but the sale price remains unknown. Corsica Ferries and its subsidiary Sardinia Ferries transport more than one million passengers annually aboard eight ferries, which operate in the western Mediterranean Sea. The Spirit III will be given a new name and will most likely be employed on a run between Corsica and France. Source: Tasmania Examiner

The TT-Line has sold the Spirit III for up to $20m more than it paid for the ship in 2003. But with cost of modification work done to make the ship suitable for Bass Strait, the TT-Line will probably only keep about $3.7m from the sale, The Mercury reported. It also has to pay its shipbroker more than $752,500 in commission. Mediterranean operator Corsica Ferries would pay $82.5m for the ship TT-Line bought for $62.2m. The identity of the buyer and the sale price had been kept confidential since a memorandum of understanding was signed last week. The axed Spirit III will sail from Sydney for Devonport for the last time on August 27. Corsica Ferries would collect the ferry from Devonport in early September. (Source: http://www.themercury.news.com.au)