Blue Star Ferries Picks Up Top Award

Blue Star Ferries was voted “Passenger Line of the Year” at the Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards in recognition of its responsibility, consistency, reliability and integrity. Blue Star Ferries’ managing director, Michalis Sakellis, received the award at a ceremony in Athens last month.

The Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards panel of judges includes professionals representing a broad section of the Greek shipping community and independent industry experts, which underlines the importance of this recognition.

Meanwhile, the company’s financial results for the first nine months of 2006 indicated a significant improvement. The consolidated revenue stood at 113.28 million euro against 108.28 million for the same period in 2005, an increase of 4.6 percent. Earnings before taxes, investing and financial results, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew to 36.25 million euro against 34.0 million euro or a 5.4 percent increase, while profit after tax and minority interests was 22.41 million euro posting a significant increase over 19.24 million euro for the previous year.

Earnings per share after tax stood at Euro 0.21 against Euro 0.18 in the nine months ending 30th September, 2005, a corresponding increase of 16.5 percent.

In September 2006, the Group’s parent company, Blue Star Maritime S.Α. sold vessels Patmos and Rodos to foreign buyers. The vessels had been acquired through an auction as part of the total assets of Dane Sea Lines and their operation was not deemed commercially viable due to their old age. The total sale price was 2.36 million euros and the profit from the sale was about 300 thousand euros.

In October 2006, following a decision of the Athens Exchange, Blue Star Maritime S.A’s shares were included in the composition of the FTSE/ASE Mid 40 Index of the Athens Exchange.