Finnlines - Company Announcement

Finnlines awarded EU funding for environmental upgrading and sustaining the competitiveness for three of its major liner services

Helsinki, Finland, 2015-07-24 14:45 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 
Finnlines Plc                         Stock Exchange Release 24 July 2015 at
15:45 



FINNLINES AWARDED EU FUNDING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL UPGRADING AND SUSTAINING THE
COMPETITIVENESS FOR THREE OF ITS MAJOR LINER SERVICES 

As part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU has awarded funding of
EUR 17.9 million jointly for Finnlines and its affiliates for investments in
liner services. 

Finnlines' three major liner services are part of the European Motorways of the
Sea programme and form an essential part of the necessary time scheduled liner
service infrastructure, benefiting the Finnish foreign trade and connecting
Finland to the rest of Europe. Together with partners consisting of ports and
port operators from Finland, Germany, Belgium and Spain, investments of about
EUR 60 million will be done to overcome the challenges brought by the new
sulphur directive and thus avoiding unwanted modal backshift of cargo from sea
to land on these three lines. 

The core of these actions is Finnlines' environmental investment programme for
emissions abatement technology (exhaust gas scrubbers) and energy efficiency
improvements by changing propeller blades and improving rudder hydrodynamics. 

Finnlines acted as lead applicant for several applications with a total value
of EUR 88.4 million of which a substantial part was selected and funded.

Finnlines' environmental technology investment programme will total EUR 100
million and cover all services and the whole fleet of 22 fully owned and
operated vessels. 

Finnlines is set to be one of the best equipped shipping companies in terms of
technological innovation in the markets served. 



Finnlines Plc

Tom Pippingsköld                                      Tapani Voionmaa
CFO                                                           Group General
Counsel 





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About Finnlines
Finnlines is a leading shipping operator of ro-ro and passenger services in the
Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The Company is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
Ltd and is a part of the Grimaldi Group, one of the world's largest operators
of ro-ro vessels and the largest operator of the Motorways of the Sea in Europe
for both passengers and freight. This affiliation enables Finnlines to offer
liner services to and from any destination in the Mediterranean, West Africa as
well as the Atlantic coast of both North and South America. 

www.finnlines.com