Tallink has been seen as a potential buyer of the financially-strapped Silja Line. The Baltic Sea's biggest shipping company is owned by the US-based Sea Containers, which announced in early November that it plans to sell it off.
Sea Containers will sell some individual ferries and face-lift the remaining fleet to attract prospective buyers. Silja Line will also lay off hundreds of employees in Finland, Sweden and Germany. The ferry operator has been struggling in the red for years, as onboard alcohol sales have dropped.
Håkan Nordström, CEO of Tallink Finland, confirmed that the company is seeking new capital to expand its operations, but declined to comment on the Silja rumours.
Tallink was established in 1989 as a Finnish-Soviet joint venture to serve the Helsinki-Tallinn route. After Estonia regained its independence the firm was bought by the state-owned Estonian Shipping Company amid an upsurge in cross-Baltic travel. Since 2003, it has been owned by an international group of institutional investors.
