By L. Karageorgos
[email protected]
A trio of ferry boat transactions were reported this week in Greece's coastal shipping sector, purchases by smaller operators.
Levante Ferries, a subsidiary of ATHEX-listed Newsphone Hellas, announced the intended purchase of the passenger-vehicle ferry "Nisos Kefalonia". The Arkoumanis family, meanwhile, has acquired a Korean vessel, a transaction announced over the weekend, which coincided with the arrival at the port of Piraeus of the "Golden Express", the newly acquired ferry by the Stefanou-Panagiotakis consortium.
The Nisos Kefalonia is expected to be transferred to its new owners in the first quarter of 2019, with the sale and renovation estimated at 10 million euros. Levante Ferries will provide 2.5 million euros up front of its own capital, along with four million euros coming from bank lending, with the remainder being paid off in over three years from expected revenues.
The ferry boat is expected to service the Kyllini-Zakythos and Kyllini-Kefalonia routes in the Ionian Sea, connecting the western Greece mainland with the two respective islands.
The "Golden Express" was built in 1998 at the Incat shipyards of Tasmania. The 90-meter vessel was jointly purchased by Golden Star Ferries and Fast Ferries, and transferred to the two companies' consortium last month by the Swedish-controlled shipping company FXTR.
Meanwhile, an application was submitted to a relevant coastal shipping council late last month for the ferry boat to ply the profitable Piraeus-Paros-Naxos-Mykonos and Rafina-Andros-Tinos-Mykonos routes in the central Aegean. A decision was delayed until next month. According to reports, other coastal shipping competitors on the lucrative Cyclades island routes sharply objected to the prospect of a new vessel being added.
Finally, according to Tradewinds, Chinese-Korean Weidong Ferry Co. recently sold the " New Golden Bridge II", built in 1990 in Japan, to the Arkoumanis family.
Renamed simply "Golden Bridge", the large vehicle-passenger ferry is destined for the Adriatic routes.
