Minoan drops Adriatic routes to focus on Greece
Minoan Lines, part of Italy’s Grimaldi Group, yesterday announced it is halting its Adriatic routes after 35 years. The Greek company will instead operate as the general sales agent in Greece for its parent group and seek new domestic routes. The two vessels Minoan used on its international routes, Cruise Europa and Cruise Olympia, will now be operated by Grimaldi Euromed SpA. Minoan chief executive Antonis Maniadakis stated that, “having assessed the change in the operating conditions over the last few months, [the company] has decided to concentrate on the growth and development of Hellenic Seaways,” referring to the affiliate in which Minoan holds a 48.4 percent controlling stake. By “operating conditions,” Maniadakis meant the considerable decline in passenger traffic due to the rise of low-cost airlines, the opening of the Balkan highways, and the increase in fuel prices combined with the decline in the euro-dollar exchange rate, which led Grimaldi to its decision to have Minoan focused on Greece.
The end of the year’s first quarter will likely see the deadline for the submission of binding offers for the sale of National Bank’s insurance arm, Ethniki Insurance. The due diligence process is set to begin next week, and the price for the 75 percent stake is expected to exceed 500 million euros. founders in 2015 the party has climbed to about 15 percent in opinion polls by focusing on an anti-immigrant agenda. Meuthen, widely seen as a moderate in the AfD, which represents a wide range of views, said the German economy could suffer in the wake of such a eurozone split but only for a year or two. “The euro is too strong for Southern European countries while for Germany and several others it’s too weak,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s conceivable that the weaker countries leave,” he said, mentioning Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. He said Greece is so weak that no country wants to share a currency with it. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Finland should remain in the core euro group, he said, even though a stronger currency would hurt exports from those countries. ter it hit another record low amid investor concerns that the country might concentrate political power under its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The central bank effectively freed up $1.5 billion in foreign cash liquidity for the banks by allowing them to reduce the amount of foreign currency they have to hold in reserve. The currency, the lira, was down almost 7 percent yesterday at 3.71 per dollar, having touched a record low of 3.78 earlier in the day.