Finnlines Oyj : Financial Review January-December 2016 and Financial Statements 2016

EMANUELE GRIMALDI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE REVIEW:

'The Finnlines Group delivered a record financial performance. For the fourth year in a row, we recorded an improvement in operating profit to date even though Europe's economic growth has not yet picked up. In addition, the prevailing sanctions and counter sanctions in Russian trade continued to impact negatively on commercial activities across the Baltic Sea region.

In spite of slow growth in Europe, the Company has succeeded in improving its result year after year. In 2016, the result for the period was EUR 68.1 million, representing a 20 per cent increase over the 2015 financial year, which was then the best ever result in Finnlines' history. This superb result development and yearly result improvement has been achieved partly due to the successful implementation of our EUR 1 billion Capex Programme in 2006-2016 targeted towards fleet renewal, and partly due to our ability to react quickly to changes in the market in order to optimise the use of vessels and routes and prudently control our costs. We are running the biggest shipping line of the Baltic Sea, and we have made sure that each route gets exactly the type and number of ships it requires, with the right capacity, the right cargo flexibility and right speed.

Thanks to our large Capex Programme to renew the fleet and also thanks to our EUR 100 million Environmental Technology Investment Programme, we have been able to reduce the fuel consumption substantially and also the NOx, CO2 and SO2 emissions and therefore contributed positively to the environment. But we will also invest further to improve sustainability in our operations. We are planning to lengthen several ro-ro vessels for achieving greater operational efficiency and even better fuel economy.

Finnlines celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2017. We must, however, keep our focus on the future prospects and opportunities. I will ensure that we will remain a very strong competitor in the market and continue to provide you all with safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally sound services - with an eye to further improvements.'

FURTHER INFORMATION

Tom Pippingsköld, Chief Financial Officer, tel. [phone], [e-mail]

Attachments:

Finnlines Q4 2016

Financial Statements 2016