Estonia homework

TALLINK: CONNECTING ESTONIA TO FINLAND, SWEDEN AND RUSSIA
Jordan Mitchell prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Peter C. Bell solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.

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Copyright © 2005, Ivey Management Services Version: (A) 2009-09-30

INTRODUCTION

In August 2002, Enn Pant, the chairman of Tallink, was considering purchasing a new ferry and reassigning the company’s existing fleet to different routes. As Estonia’s sole ferry company, Tallink competed against three Scandinavian companies — Nordic Jet Line, Viking Line and Silja Line — for passengers and cargo on several routes, including connections between Estonia, Finland and Sweden. As part of management’s plan to update their fleet, Tallink had inaugurated its most modern ferry to date in 2002 — the M/S Romantika, a €150-million, 2,500-passenger vessel for the Tallinn to Helsinki route. Tallink’s management proposed purchasing an identical sister ship to run between Tallinn and Stockholm beginning in 2004. If the new ship were purchased, Pant and his management believed there would be an opportunity to redeploy a ferry to start a route to St. Petersburg, Russia.

TALLINK HISTORY

Tallink was founded as a joint venture in 1989 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The original joint venture had four partners: the Finnish company Palkkiyhtymä Oy, the City of Tallinn, the Port of Tallinn and the state-run Estonian Shipping Company (Eesti Merelaevandus). The first Tallink passenger ship crossed the Gulf of Finland in January 1990. The Finnish partner, which owned 49 per cent, sold its shares to the Estonian Shipping Company in 1993, and a year later, some of the ownership had been transferred to private Estonian hands. Enn Pant joined as chairman in 1996 and, under new management, the company expanded by purchasing two new passenger vessels: M/S Fantaasia and M/S Vana Tallinn. On the company’s 10th anniversary in 2000, Tallink purchased its first high-speed catamaran and made an agreement with the Finnish shipyard Aker Finnyards to build a new 2,500-person passenger vessel called M/S Romantika to travel between Tallinn and Helsinki. In May 2002, M/S Romantika was launched, which freed up M/S Fantaasia to be redeployed to the Tallinn-Stockholm route.

During Tallink’s 2001/2002 fiscal year (September to August), Tallink sold the Express I catamaran and purchased two of its ferries, M/S Meloodia and M/S Regina Baltica, which had been under charter from the Estonian Shipping Company.

To boost the profile of the Tallink brand and to promote ticket sales, Tallink opened two new sales ticket offices in the centre of two key cities — Stockholm and Tallinn. The company also made changes to its capital structure, selling approximately four per cent of the company to private European and U.S. investment funds. The involvement of the investment funds gave Tallink more access to capital by which to finance new vessel acquisitions. To raise additional funds, Tallink was also considering going public.

TALLINK’S FERRIES AND ROUTES

As of August 2002, Tallink had a total of eight vessels: five passenger ferries, two high-speed vessels and one cargo ship. These eight vessels covered three main routes: Tallinn, Estonia, to Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden; and, Paldiski, Estonia, to Kapellskär, Sweden. For the year closing August 31, 2002, Tallink was estimating a total passenger count of approximately 2,747,000 passengers, an increase of 4.2 per cent over the previous year. Cargo units had also increased, growing 21 per cent from 71,953 units to just over 87,000 units.

Tallink was in the process of renewing its fleet over the next five years, wh