Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Jul 31, 2012 8:43AM EDT
Scandlines completed its exit from Northern Europe’s short sea freight market with the sale of a Baltic Sea route and three vessels to Swedish Orient Line.
Germany’s largest ferry company did not disclose financial details of the deal which follows the recent sale of five freight routes and two ships to Sweden’s Stena Line.
Swedish Orient Line will take over the route between Rostock, Germany, and Hanko, Finland, on September 1.
Gothenburg-based Stena expects to start operating services on the five former Scandlines cargo routes between Germany, Sweden and Latvia in August after German regulators waved through the transaction in mid-July.
Scandlines, which is jointly owned by UK private equity fund 3i and German insurer Allianz and transported 830,000 trucks and trailers in 2011, will now focus on passenger traffic.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.