Tallink incurs €108.3m loss last year

The cruise ship operator Tallink Grupp reported an unaudited net loss of EUR 108.3 million for the 2020 financial year. The company earned a net profit of EUR 49.7 million in 2019, said it in a press release.

Tallink Grupp on Monday published its 2020 financial results to the stock exchange.

The negative financial report resulted from travel restrictions, border closures, and states of emergency due to the global COVID 19 pandemic.

The group’s unaudited consolidated revenue amounted to EUR 442.9 million in 2020, which is a 53% drop compared to that of the previous year (EUR 949.1 million) and the group’s unaudited EBITDA for the financial year also declined in 2020, reaching EUR 8.0 million (171.1 million in 2019).

Considering the 62% reduction in the company’s passenger number for the year, the 5.2% decrease in the number of cargo units carried and a significant 20% reduction in the number of trips operated in 2020 compared to that in 2019. The results for the year, when the world was ravaged by a global health and financial crisis, are unsurprising.

As a result of travel restrictions that were in place to varying degrees throughout the year, several of the company’s normal daily operating routes have remained suspended since March 2020 (Tallinn-Stockholm, Helsinki-Stockholm, and Riga-Stockholm) and the company’s hotels and restaurants were closed for shorter or longer periods during 2020.

The company attempted to boost its operations by setting up various temporary routes in summer 2020 and by operating a number of special cruises in areas where travel restrictions allowed operations, but these attempts were, once again, curbed in autumn 2020 by travel restrictions re-imposed gradually across the region.

The most significant challenge and impact of the crisis was on the company’s employees. Due to reduced operations and a critical need to bring the company’s income and costs in line, the company was forced to undertake a number of personnel related processes throughout the year, including lay-offs, temporary reductions in working hours and pay, as well as collective redundancies.

As a result of the various processes in all the company’s home markets, employee numbers across the group reduced during the year from 7,240 at the end of 2019 to 4,237 at the end of 2020 (out of whom approximately 400 employees are currently on parental leave).