ICG sells charter ship for €37.7m

FERRY OPERATOR Irish Continental Group (ICG) has agreed to sell its Bilbaocharter ship for €37.7 million.

The ferry is being sold to St Peter Line in Cyprus, with the sum payable in instalments over 5.75 years up to September 2016.

ICG said the transaction would result in a pretax profit of €8 million being booked in its full-year 2010 accounts. Under the terms of the deal, the ship will be chartered to St Peter Line under a hire-purchase arrangement.

Title will pass to the Cypriot entity when the final hire payment is made in September 2016. The ship will be delivered to St Peter Line this month and the company is expected to operate it on the Stockholm to St Petersburg route.

ICG acquired the vessel for $80 million in November 1993 from Sweden’s Viking Line. At the time, it was on charter to PO European Ferries for operation on routes from Portsmouth in England to Spain and France. This charter was extended a number of times but ended in October.

In the current financial year, the Bilbaohas generated charter revenue of €3.6 million and operating profit of €1.5 million.

John Sheehan, an equity analyst with company broker NCB, estimated that the Bilbaohas generated charter revenues of $173 million for ICG since 1993, with an additional $49 million due as part of this deal. ICG's shares closed up slightly ahead yesterday at €15.20.