The Icelandic transportation company Eimskip and the Finnish Container Finance Ltd Oy have formed a joint venture that will be one of Europe’s largest door-to-door logistics service providers under the name Containerships Group. The joint venture has 41 vessels, a total of 30,000 container units (TEU), a wide range of modern container units as well as an extensive office network in the Baltic Sea region and Europe.
Earlier this year, Eimskip acquired Kursiu Linija, a Lithuanian short-sea container shipping line providing door-to-door freight delivery services in the Baltic States, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom and Northern Europe.
Containerships is a 40 year old Finnish family company specialized in door-to-door transport services within Finland, Russia and Northern Europe. Covering service network includes ports of Helsinki, St.Petersburg, Teesport, Tilbury, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Aarhus, Gdansk and Södertälje.
From these elements, combining Eimskip, Kursiu Linija and CSL market coverage, knowledge and specialization on superior customer service, a new Baltic Sea champion will be formed under the brand Containerships Groups. The Containerships Group will have an annual turnover of 200 million euros, an EBITDA of 6 % and it will operate 11 vessels, more than 10.000 mainly pallet wide and special containers, and employ more than 500 persons. The market area will cover the whole Baltic Sea and the North Sea with transshipment possibilities to Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy and through the Eimskip network to other parts of the world.
Eimskip will own 65 % of the joint venture and Container Finance will own 35 %. The parties have agreed upon an option enabling Eimskip to increase its shareholding to 100 % of Containerships Group in the future.
The Containerships Group will have its headquarters in Helsinki. Kursiu Linija will be a subsidiary of CS and integrated to CS operations within this year. On January 1st 2007, Mr. Sigurjon Markusson will take office as a new CEO at Containerships. Until then, Mr. Kimmo Nordström will act as CEO and will after Markusson’s arrival act as Chairman of the Board.
“I am very pleased with this cooperation. The joint venture with Containerships supports Eimskip’s future vision of being the market leader in the North Atlantic, offering total services in through a network linking key ports in Europe. There is a great deal of knowledge and valuable human resources within Containerships, Eimskip and Kursiu Linija. With joined forces we’ll be able to better serve our customers by offer more extensive and flexible service than before”, says Baldur Gudnason, CEO of Eimskip.
“Participating in the joint venture with our 40 year old family company was not a trivial decision. Eimskip was, however, able to assure us about the added value of this cooperation. Today, Containerships’ business is doing better than ever. Our customer oriented door-to-door strategy as well as our direct investments in Russia have been successful. A family owned company has, however, restricted resources. With Eimskip, Containerships shall be better positioned to grow and to continue developing the door-to-door service both in Europe and in Russia. Containerships will bring its logistics know-how, its excellent personnel and office network as well as the experiences of the Russian trade into the cooperation”, says Kimmo Nordström, CEO of Containerships.
About Containerships
Containerships is a privately owned shipping line with headquarters in Helsinki and subsidiaries in nine countries. Containerships’ emphasis is on door-to-door movements of containerized cargoes. All stages of the transport are supported by a modern IT- system so that seamless control of shipments is kept throughout the entire movement. With the fleet of ice-classed modern container vessels and over 8.000 pallet-wide containers combined with the know-how of our highly motivated staff, Containerships is able to provide transport solutions to suit individual requirements. In December 2006, Containerships will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
About Kursiu Linija
The Lithuanian Kursiu Linija was established in 1995. The company currently operates five vessels. The total number of container units is 5,000 TEU.
About Eimskip
Eimskip offers total transportation solutions to its customers, including ocean freight, reefer logistics, air freight and inland transportation, with particular expertise in temperature controlled logistics and storage. Eimskip operates at 88 operational bases in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. The company operates 36 vessels, 400 trucks and over 40 coldstores. Eimskip is a subsidiary of Avion Group. The company was the first shipping line in Iceland established 1914, through the years it has evolved from being a shipping line to a total transportation and logistics company. Eimskip employs 3.000 people, two-third of whom work in other countries than Iceland.
About Avion Group
Avion Group is a leading investment company, focused on air, land and sea transportation solutions worldwide. The company is organized into three business divisions -- Aviation Services, Charter & Leisure and Shipping & Logistics. Aviation Services consists of ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) provider Air Atlanta Icelandic, maintenance provider Avia Technical Services and airport handling provider Southair. Charter & Leisure is represented by leisure service travel provider Excel Airways Group in the UK, Star Airlines, the second biggest charter airline in France and the newly founded airline Star Europe in Germany. There are currently approximately 60 Boeing and Airbus aircraft in the fleet. The Shipping and Logistics division is represented by Eimskip, the market leading transport company in the North Atlantic and the prime maritime transportation company in Iceland. Avion Group employs close to 6,500 people at 118 operational bases worldwide.
