Four New Superfast Ferries In The Baltic Sea In 2001

Superfast Ferries (Attica Enterprises) announced plans last month to deploy four brand new ultramodern car-passenger ferries – Superfast VII, VIII, IX and Χ –  in the Baltic Sea in 2001.

Beginning in January and in regular intervals until September 2001, four new Superfast ferries will be employed in the Baltic between Germany and Finland and between Germany and Sweden, offering overnight crossings, with departures at the same time every day throughout the year.

The ships will have an overall length of 204 m., breadth of 25 m. and will have a height of 10 decks. Superfast VII, VIII, IX and X, currently under construction at Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft A.G. in Kiel, Germany, will have the capacity to carry 604 passengers in 172 cabins, 125 trucks and 110 private vehicles. First class facilities and services on board will include shopping boutiques with an extensive choice of luxury items and quality goods, gastronomic delights at the buffet and a-la-carte restaurant, a children’s playroom, conference rooms, casino, discotheque, live entertainment at the night club, sauna, Jacuzzi and three bars.

The ships comply to Ice Class 1A Super and they will be able to develop a speed of up to 29.2 knots. The new Superfast ferries will connect the Stockholm and Helsinki greater metropolitan areas to Northern Germany in about 17 and 21 hours respectively.

Separately, Attica Enterprises announced that it has established a new, 100%-owned subsidiary company called Attica Premium SA. Attica Premium will have three branches in Athens, one branch in Piraeus and one branch in Thessaloniki, while it will also set-up branches in several Europe Union countries.

Attica Premium, which has a share capital of GRD 200,000,000, has its headquarters in Attica, Greece. Its establishment should help the vertical integration of the operations of the group as well as improve the management of its sales network. In addition, the group’s operations costs will decrease, since the earnings of Attica Premium will be consolidated in the financial statements.

The subsidiary will sell tickets for the vessels belonging to Superfast Ferries and Strintzis Lines group, which are both members of Attica Enterprises group.

Attica announced the purchase of 14,431,090 shares in Strintzis Lines through the Athens Stock Exchange at a price of 2,900 drachmas share. The value of the transaction totalled 41.8 billion drachmas, giving Attica 40.22% controlling interest in Strintzis.

Under the two firms’ shipbuilding plans, in less than two years they plan to add another 12 state-of-the-art car passenger ferries to their fleet, at a cost of 300 billion drachmas. Three of these vessels are being by Greek Shipbuilding AE at the Skaramangas yards. The two companies combined have a total of 16 ships, four of which are superfast ferries, 10 are large car passenger ferries ans two catamaran type passenger-only ferries.