Stena in €70m P&O deal

STENA LINE is set to become the biggest player on the Irish Sea, taking over €70m of P&O’s ferry assets on two routes.

Stena is to take over five ferries and their crews, and P&O has also agreed to charter two other ships to Stena P&O, which runs seven routes in the Irish Sea including two to France.

It will continue to operate three vessels on the Larne-Cairnryan route, two ferries on the Larne-Troon service and one ferry on the Rosslare-Cherbourg service.

Shore staff at the three ports, along with others at Larne dedicated to P&O`s Fleetwood to Larne service, will also be transferred to Stena.

A spokesman for P&O said it was too early to say how many jobs would be affected by the changes.

As part of the shake-up, P&O yesterday launched a consultation exercise with employees regarding the closure of its ferry service linking Dublin to Mostyn in north Wales.

The programme would see P&O’s shoreside operations at the Port of Mostyn closed, along with its office facilities at Fleetwood in Lancashire.

P&O has been restructuring to focus on higher-yielding routes.

As part of a drive to achieve annual savings of £15m, the company has already closed some loss-making routes.

Under the latest agreement, Stena’s port operations at Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway would be transferred to Cairnryan, with Stena taking a 50% stake in the port.

It is not the first time P&O and Stena have linked up. Before P&O began a restructuring of its ferries operation to create a single brand, Stena held a 40% stake in a joint venture named P&O Stena Line.

In March, P&O saw group underlying profits slump to £9.2m from £160m a year earlier after a downturn at its shipping joint venture P&O

Nedlloyd. The ferries division achieved operating profits of £13.7m.