Rival Bids for Tirrenia

Rival Bids for Tirrenia

A virtual who’s who of the western Mediterranean ferry market, along with a few notable outsiders, lined up on Friday to present formal expressions of interest in Italy’s state-owned shipping company Tirrenia. They include a string of rival companies in the private sector, among them Grimaldi Naples, Moby Lines, Corsica-Sardinia Ferries, Grandi Navi Veloci and Snav. Turin daily La Stampa also reported that the 16-strong list included a number of investment funds and an unnamed Greek shipowner.
 
Several regional companies operated until recently by Tirrenia have already been hived off, and the regional governments of Campania, Tuscany and Sardinia will now put concessions for those operations out to public tender. Tirrenia’s core business, along with regional company Siremar, serving Sicily, are now up for grabs, with the government intent on selling its shares in the operations as part of an effort to liberalise the Italian shipping market. Though the government is intent on selling the operation en bloc, industry sources question the practicality of such a solution, whether because of the inclusion of Siremar in the package or because of the uneven quality of the Tirrenia fleet.

Italian transport minister Altero Matteoli said “The privatisation process has been shared and agreed with the European Commission. It will go forward according to the timetable we have established and will be concluded by September 30.”