Irish Continental Group, the owner of Irish Ferries, has reported a jump in pre-tax profits as well as higher revenues for the six months to the end of June.
ICG said its pre-tax profits soared by 40.4% to €20.5m from €14.6m the same time last year, while its revenues rose by 8.5% to €309.9m from €285.5m.
The company has declared an interim dividend of 5.37 cent, an increase of 5/1% on the interim dividend of 5.11 cent the same time last year.
During the first six months of the year, ICG said it carried a total of 264,900 cars, down 4.4% on the same time in 2024 mainly due to a reduction in sailings on the Dover-Calais route and disruption at the Holyhead port in England after it was forced to close for several months due to storm damage.
Total passenger carryings were 1,284,500, a decrease of 3.5% on last year, but despite this, passenger revenues increased by 8.6% on 2024.
Meanwhile, freight carryings in the six month period rose by 2.2% to 393,300 units as freight revenues increased by 1.4% compared with the first half of last year.
In April, the group completed the purchase of the James Joyce (formerly Star 1) from Tallink – the vessel was previously on charter to the group – and entered service with Irish Ferries on the Dublin-Holyhead route in May.
The James Joyce is the largest (by passenger capacity) and fastest passenger cruise ferry on the Irish Sea with capacity for over 2,000 passengers. It also has the largest shopping space of any cruise ferry on the Irish Sea with more than 17,000 square feet of retail space.
After the start of service of the James Joyce, the Isle of Inisheer was redeployed on the Dublin-Cherbourg route, which now allows Irish Ferries to offer daily sailings to and from France in combination with the WB Yeats cruise ferry.
The group also purchased the CT Endeavor in April. This ship was built in 2005 and has been put into service in the Container and Terminal Division with ICG’s subsidiary Eucon.
During the current year, ICG said its the Dublin Swift and the Isle of Inisheer ferries have been operating on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), which can reduce emissions by as much as 80% compared with conventional fuels.
ICG Chairman John B. McGuckian said that despite a difficult start, the first half of 2025 has been a successful period for the group.
He said the closure of Holyhead Port in December 2024 negatively impacted volumes in the Ferries Division at the beginning of 2025, but added that following its partial reopening in January, the company has seen a return to more normalised volumes without RoRo carryings to the end of June up 2.2%.
“While we welcome the partial reopening of Holyhead Port, the risk remains of delays to its full reopening. Completion of repairs by the port owner will require further operational restrictions during September and October of this year and in the first quarter of 2026, though it is expected that full services will operate on a modified timetable,” he said.
He also noted that in its Container and Terminal Division, containers shipped have increased by 24.7% versus the prior period and port lifts have increased by 10%.
“We continue to build on the progress made in the prior year with a continuation of our space charter agreement with P&O Ferries on the Dover- Calais route. This allows for the sharing of space for freight traffic on both parties’ vessels,” the ICG chairman said.
“In addition, we are seeing the benefit of the additional freight capacity provided by the introduction of the Oscar Wilde onto the route in 2024. The vessel entered service with Irish Ferries in June 2024 and has enhanced both our customer offering on the route and increased capacity,” he added.
Mr McGuckian said the purchase of the James Joyce ferry follows the acquisition of the Oscar Wilde in 2024 by way of a two-year charter with a purchase obligation in 2026.
“The combination of these two acquisitions result in the group being in ownership of all vessels in service under the Irish Ferries brand and has eliminated the necessity for chartering in passenger ships. For a number of years, this has been a key ambition for the Group and it is a significant step forward to complete it this year,” he stated.
Shares in the company ended lower in Dublin trade today.
