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Onorato to bid for Tirrenia
Tuesday 9 February 2010
THEY say the old ones are often the best ones, so for what it is worth… Moby supremo Vincenzo Onorato last week reiterated his long-held desire to bid for Tirrenia, the state-owned company that has been his bête noir — and vice-versa, it should be said — for as long as anyone can remember.
The seemingly interminable process of Tirrenia’s privatisation is now due to be completed by the autumn, and is likely to see a number of bidders for the core business plus the regional ferry operation serving Sicily.
As Onorato told Italian wire service Ansa at an event for his latest yacht- racing venture: “The assets are worth little. The real prize is the subsidies.” That, too, is the conventional wisdom.
So why are we reporting this? Because Onorato said he would put in his bid before the end of this month, a move that might just stir Rome into meaningful action at last.
“For the moment, we are alone,” he said. Other bidders will surely surface. Whether anyone will prove quite as determined as Onorato remains to be seen, however.
Norfolkline competition
HOW much time would it take the 1984-built, 7,746 gt ro-ro Saga Moon , now renamed Santa Marcela , to travel from Belfast to La Paz in the Gulf of California?
Your right guess, along with a donation to Seafarers UK, entitles you to the first prize of a trip to Mexico for two, including seven nights accommodation and return flights.
Second prize is a return crossing on Norfolkline Irish Sea for a car and two people plus two tickets to a home Liverpool FC match, and third prize is two return flights to Paris.
The ship was last month sold to a Mexican entity by AP Moller-Maersk subsidiary Norfolkline. It has had an historic 25-year tenure, having logged 1.3m nautical miles — “far enough to take it round the earth 63 times”, according to the proud ex-owner.
The master’s estimate for the voyage time is 22 days. But Norfolkline adds: “Although it sounds easy, do not forget the currents, tides, Panama Canal delays, and possibly bad weather that all make it a little more difficult to guess the exact duration of the voyage.”
Shipping’s poor prognosis
CHINESE astrology is widely followed in the Far East, so we are sorry to have to inform superstitious readers that prognosis for shipping in 2010 is unfavourable.
That, anyway, is the conclusion of Hong Kong-based independent brokerage and investment group CLSA Asia- Pacific Markets, which has just published the 16th edition of its popular annual Feng Shui Index report, known as FSI.
The whole idea is, of course, tongue in cheek. But aficionados are adamant that past editions — based on a combination of forecasts from local feng shui masters and CLSA staff — have charted the peregrinations of the Hang Seng with uncanny accuracy.
As you may know, February 14 marks the start of the Year of the Tiger, with a heavenly stem of metal. That, CLSA maintains, is good news for metal-related industries, said to include technology, power and property.
Conversely, water-related businesses face a torrid time. This designation inevitably covers shipping, and for some reason, airlines and transport and logistics as a whole.
There. You have been warned. Maybe somebody should ring up Mystic Meg for a second opinion.
