Société nationale maritime Corse Méditerranée

Maritima Ferries
Industry	Passenger transportation; Freight transportation
Founded	1969 (As CGTM); 1976 (As SNCM); 2016 (As Maritima Ferries)
Headquarters	Marseilles, France
Area served	France, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia
Website	www.sncm.fr

MS *Danielle Casanova* departing the port of Bastia

Maritima Ferries is a French ferry company operating in the Mediterranean, following the bankruptcy and sale of SNCM (Société Nationale Maritime Corse Méditerranée), the company was re branded to Maritima Ferries from 2016 onwards.

Its ferries sail from Marseille, Toulon, Nice on mainland France, Calvi, Bastia, Ajaccio, Ile Rousse, Propriano, and Porto Vecchio on Corsica, Porto Torres on Sardinia, Algiers, Oran, Skikda and Bejaia in Algeria as well as Tunis in Tunisia and Genoa in Italy.

SNCM traces its history back to 1850.

History

In 1855, the Compagnie Générale Maritime was created.
In 1861, the Compagnie Générale Maritime changed its name to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique.
In 1969, the Compagnie générale transméditerranéenne (CGTM) was created by joining the Mediterranean services of the Compagnie générale transatlantique with the Compagnie de navigation mixte.
In 1976, the CGTM came under state control and changed its name to SNCM. The state ownership was managed 75% by the Compagnie générale maritime (CGM) and 25% by the SNCF, the latter influencing the new name.

2005 privatization

In September 2005, French Prime minister Dominique de Villepin presented a project of privatization of the company. Villepin was to hand out the SNCM to Butler Capital Partners for 35 million euros, after a previous "recapitalisation" of 113 million euros (injection of new capital by the state). However, this project caused a public outcry, as it put into question the balancing out principle of public transports (péréquation), meaning that to insure the continuity of the national territory and the equality of all concerning this important territorial continuity. In other words, the state-owned SNCM was to insure transport between the mainland and Corsica all year long, even though in exclusive market terms it may not be profitable, so that Corsicans can access administrative services as well as any other Frenchman. Moreover, Walter Butler was Villepin's schoolmate and friend from l'ENA, the elite public servants school.

Following hard negotiations and a strike by the CGT trade-union and the Corsican Workers' Trade Union (STC), a new project was presented. In May 2006, the company was privatized. Connex (which has since became Veolia Transport, a subsidiary of Veolia Environment group) took 28% of the SNCM (against 38% for Butler in the previous arrangement); the state kept 25% of the shares, and 9% sold to the employees. 400 layoffs were planned; in addition to the 113 million euros reinjected by the state before the privatization, 35 million euros were to be given to finance the layoffs.

In 2008, Butler sold its shares to Veolia, who became the main shareholder with 66% of shares.^[1] In 2011, the shares were passed on to Veolia Transdev (now simply Transdev), after Veolia merged with Transdev (historic).

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2014 and was subsequently placed in receivership of the court of Marseilles.^[2]

Fleet

Ship	Built	Joined fleet	Type	Gross tonnage	Length	Width	Passengers	Vessels	Knots
Corse [fr]	1983		Ferry	12.686 GT	145 m	23,8 m	1.800	620	22
Méditerranée [fr]	1989		Cruiseferry	30.985 GT	165 m	27,4 m	2.450	700	24
Monte D'Oro [fr]	1991		RoPax ferry	22.070 GT	145 m	25,7 m	528	130	19
Paglia Orba [fr]	1994		RoPax ferry	29.718 GT	165,8 m	29 m	544	120	19
Jean Nicoli [fr]	1998	2009	RoPax ferry	30.010 GT	200,6 m	25,8 m	1.052	600	27
Danielle Casanova	2002		Cruiseferry	41.447 GT	176 m	30,4 m	2.204	700	23
Pascal Paoli	2003		RoPax ferry	35.760 GT	176 m	30,5 m	622	130	23