The Grimaldi group wants new investments in Greece

Grimaldi Group CEO Emanuele Grimaldi reaffirmed his interest in strengthening his investment presence in Greece during a press conference at the 24th EuroMed Convention held yesterday in Valencia, Spain. At the same time, he did not “avoid” the tradition of “throwing” some track shots against his competitors, Greek shipping companies Attica Group and ANEK, as he almost always does in every Euromed Convention, in recent years, but also against Cosco, which controls the port of Piraeus.

The head of the Italian Group that recently acquired in Spain – hence the conference this year took place in Valencia – some lines and ships of the Trasmediterránea Group did not rule out a similar move in Greece if the conditions are met, while at the same time he stated that he would be interested in the ports of Igoumenitsa and Heraklion that are in the process of privatization by the Hellnic Republic Asset Development Fund, as well as for the port of Corfu if in the future it’s up for sale. The Grimaldi group has already shown initial interest, in the context of the two tenders for the Ports of Igoumenitsa and Heraklion.

“We are said to be the largest customer in both ports and therefore the interest is reasonable” said Mr. Grimaldi adding that if he undertakes them he will strengthen them with further investments.

At the same time he reminded the presence that he has in Greece both in coastal shipping through Minoan Lines – which according to information, are considering the possibility of strengthening their presence on the line Piraeus-Cyclades-Heraklion with a second fast ferry- but also the Adriatic lines and also in vehicle transport. We have an important activity in Greece, he said, which is the main component of the “motorways of the seas” developed by the Group. At this point, he  let barbs fly against the Chinese managed PPA, noting that they are proceeding with continuous fare increases at the car terminal.

Referring in particular to coastal shipping and its competitors, the ANEK-Attica Group consortium estimated that ANEK is under the Attica umbrella, that for him there are only two operators, Minoan Lines of the Group and the Attica Group. He added that ANEK is directly and indirectly supported by Piraeus Bank as the shipping company has negative equity, he risked saying that the passengers trust a company with negative equity and finally noted that he would be interested if a business entity or shipping lines go up for sale.

Earlier, speaking at the conference organized by the group for 24 years, he referred to the investments made by the Group, focusing on the continuous renovation of the fleet that exceed two billion euros, in order to become as “green” as possible.

However, the Grimaldi Group was also hit by the pandemic as in 2020, compared to 2019, it lost revenues of almost 400 million euros as they decreased to 2.765 billion euros from 3.157 billion euros in 2019. Regarding Minoan Lines, according to the data presented by Mr. Grimaldi, in 2020 it had revenues of 63 million euros compared to 97 million euros a year ago.