New helmsman and steady Q1 for Finnlines
Musical chairs at Finnlines, the Grimaldi Group subsidiary that operates ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic and North Seas and in the Bay of Biscay.
On 6 May, its board of directors appointed CFO Tom Pippingsköld as vice-president and deputy CEO of Finnlines. Thus Pippingsköld, who's been CFO since 2013, remains CFO and now also serves as deputy to the president and CEO. He manages the group’s finance, administration, legal, human resources, communications and IT activities as a member of the executive committee, and reports to president and CEO Emanuele Grimaldi.
In other news, Finnlines saw its turnover in Q1/2021 decrease only slightly vis-à-vis the same period of the previous year. Sales fell by a mere 5% or EUR 6.4 million, and stood at EUR 124.1 million.
President and CEO Emanuele Grimaldi: “The reduction was caused by the measures to counter the outbreak of Covid-19, which didn’t impact last year’s first quarter. It has reduced passenger revenues by EUR 2.7 million by now.”
Low bunker surcharges also affected turnover, he added. The line managed to keep its ebitda at EUR 30.3 million, down from EUR 38.2 million.
Finnlines transported 187,000 cargo units, 44,000 cars and 101,000 passengers in Q1/2021. The line recently added a second vessel, the ‘Finnpulp’, to its Germany–Russia–Finland traffic, and chartered a vessel for ‘Finnpulp’s old Hanko–Rostock route. (cd)