Grimaldi purchases stake in Greek ferry operator

Grimaldi purchases stake in Greek ferry operator Italian shipping company Grimaldi Group, parent of Atlantic Container Lines and a large operator of ferries and short sea shipping vessels in Europe, has launched an offer to buy the shares in Greece’s Minoan Lines it does not already own.
   Reuters said the offer was triggered by law after Grimaldi acquired more than one-third of the Greek ferry company’s shares, and Grimaldi said it would offer 5.29 euros per share, compared to the stock’s closing price of 5 euros on Friday.
   In January, Grimaldi said it had increased its stake in Athens-listed Minoan Lines from 3.05 percent to nearly 30 percent by purchasing 26.71 percent of shares from a Cypriot-based Sea Star Capital in a deal in which it also sold a 16.8 percent stake in ANEK Lines to Sea Star.
   Grimaldi said at that time it was “confident that important synergies and opportunities of cooperation can be generated with Minoan Lines, therefore further promoting the concept of the Motorways of the Sea in the whole Mediterranean basin.”