Ferry Time blog

Source: newswales.co.uk

Campaigners trying to raise nearly £3 million to resume a Swansea to Cork ferry service say they have been been overwhelmed by an ‘amazing response.’

And they have been given a new deadline of March 10 to come up with the shortfall of cash needed to re-launch the service.

A Finnish bank ready to bankroll most of the money to purchase a new boat says it will give the fundraising effort extra time.

But more pledges from South Wales, Cork, and Kerry are still needed to meet the target within the new deadline.

The consortium urgently needs investors to pledge £9,000 each to get the ferry up and sailing.

They say a £9,000 investment will be secured against the purchase of the vessel and with the service anticipated to make a profit by year two it should offer a good direct return for investors.

The proposed ferry would carry 1,800 passengers and 500 cars. The new boat is expected to cost approaching £10 million, of which the co-operative will be expected to provide nearly £3 million.

A similar service was a profitable business from 1987 to 2006. Its sudden closure meant a loss of Irish visitors who brought £65 million to Swansea and West Wales hotels, pubs, restaurants and B&Bs.

Campaigners say the return of the service would translate into hundreds of jobs in Swansea Bay and the surrounding area, as well as in and around Cork.

Potential investors can now pledge online using the following bank details:

1. Account name: McGuire Desmond, Solicitors, 5 Lapps Quay, Cork

2. Account No.: 5753 0213

3. Sort Code: 90-27-68

4. IBAN: IE96BOFI90276857530213

5. Swift Code: BOFIIE2D

6. Reference: South West Tourism – CD/MH/2204.1

7. Bank of Ireland, 32 South Mall, Cork

Source: Lloyds List

Channel ferry operator Brittany Ferries has joined compatriot Louis Dreyfus Armateurs in bidding to take over ailing Dover Strait ferry operator SeaFrance.

French secretary of state for transport Dominique Bussereau, who revealed the news today, said that Brittany Ferries had proposed a partial rather than a complete takeover of SeaFrance.

He gave no details but indicated that the offer made by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, which submitted a formal offer to SeaFrance’s parent, French national rail operator SNCF, last week, had also been partial rather than total.

‘The two are making SeaFrance offers which are not offers of complete takeover but of partial takeover at levels which they must determine,’ he said.

Mr Bussereau revealed that he had already met the chairmen of Brittany Ferries and LDA, respectively Jean-Marc Roué and Philippe Louis-Dreyfus, as well as SNCF chairman Guillaume Pépy.

He said that he had told them that the government, which owns SNCF, would be looking into the situation at SeaFrance.

The ferry operator recently announced plans to axe up to 650 jobs among its 1,700-strong workforce as part of a plan to stop heavy loss-making.

LDA indicated, however, that it hoped to reduce the number of job losses substantially by merging SeaFrance and its own ferry subsidiary LD Lines into a new entity under the SeaFrance name.

Mr Bussereau said that a decision would have to be taken rapidly regarding the takeover offers for the company.

‘This affair must be settled one way or another, with the greatest respect for the personnel, before the end of the month of March,’ he said.