ASPO'S ESL SHIPPING TO SELL THE MS ARKADIA
2006-12-21T13:30:35 CETASPO Plc STOCK EXCHANGE BULLETIN December 21, 2006 at 2:30 p.m.
The Board of Directors of Aspo Plc has today authorized the company's management to prepare the sale of Ms Arkadia, owned by ESL Shipping Oy, a subsidiary of Aspo Plc. Arkadia's value has been entirely written off, and the sale will therefore bring in a significant profit. The sale is likely to be realized in the first half of 2007. Arkadia is the second oldest ship in the ESL Shipping fleet. It was launched in 1983.
"The correctly timed purchases and sales of ships are a central part of the ESL Shipping strategy. Recently, we have modernized and increased our fleet substantially. The completed measures ensure that ESL possesses an increasingly versatile and modern fleet. This enables us to serve our customers' diversified needs even better than before, and the operations of our fleet are as efficient as possible," Aspo's CEO Gustav Nyberg says.
Last spring, a new Eira class vessel Ms Credo was launched, and two vessels of the same class were ordered from India earlier this year. The two new ships will be launched in 2008 and 2009 bringing the number of Eira class vessels to four.
ESL Shipping is a dry bulk cargo carrier mainly in the Baltic region. In 2005, the company shipped some 14 million tons of cargo. The energy sector accounted for approximately 33% and the steel industry for about 57% of the transportation volume.
ASPO Plc
Gustav Nyberg
CEO
For more information, please contact:
Gustav Nyberg, CEO, Aspo Plc, tel. +358 9 7595 256, +358 40 5036420
Markus Karjalainen, President, ESL Shipping Oy, +358 400 888 020