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Yes £124 million is very overpriced for a company that small, but I also suspect debt is the factor at play, I read elsewhere that IOMSP had debts of £74 million, and that a realistic valuation of the company was £45-50 million, so it looks like they paid what the company was worth and paid off the debt as well in a single movement commercial transaction.

Certification issue has caused delay, this was published on the Facebook Ferries site by Steve Tarbox


http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/cantabria/brittany-ferries-confia-20180507185116-nt.html

They hope to be up and running soon.

As far as I know it left Ringaskiddy last night with 200 passengers and 80 vehicles, that would imply it got its cert, the last minute change of port is very strange though, I wonder if there is a problem with unions at Roscoff?.

[We're sorry to advise that, due to operational changes, the 19:00 sailing from Roscoff to Cork on 08/05/2018 will now depart from the port of Brest. Latest check-in is now 18:15. On arrival at Brest follow signs for BREST PORT and take the Kiel Avenue route to port. Please call + 353 (0) 21 425 3112 for advice & assistance. We apologise for the inconvenience.]

Connemara heading to Brest instead of Roscoff today. Sailing from Brest to Cork tonight

We're sorry to advise that, due to operational changes, the 19:00 sailing from Roscoff to Cork on 08/05/2018 will now depart from the port of Brest.  Latest check-in is now 18:15. On arrival at Brest follow signs for BREST PORT and take the Kiel Avenue route to port. Please call + 353 (0) 21 425 3112 for advice & assistance. We apologise for the inconvenience. 

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/routes/sailing-updates

Thats very strange, I wonder whats going on there.

Connemara currently north west of Brest, France enroute to Cork, she may well arrive before 7am.

Port of Cork website now showing Connemara as due to arrive at Ringaskiddy next Monday 7th May at 15 00

Interestingly now shows expected at 0700 , http://www.portofcork.ie/index.cfm/page/shippingtimes

If passenger demand is high enough you might see Bretagne or Normanide added to the route next year as a nice retirement home once Honfluer comes onstream

Or not.  Bretagne would struggle in terms of freight capacity if the route is successful with the code market it is aimed at with less than half that of Asterion/Connemara

Indeed Bretagne would not be a suitable replacement for Connemara, but would be suitable to augment the service to boost passenger capacity which it seems by level of interest is far higher than Brittany Ferries anticipated, as an additional vessel it could operate twice weekly to Santander and once weekly to Roscoff, or depending on demand, three times weekly to Roscoff and once weekly to Santander, a lot will depend on level of demand which at the moment looks to be strong.

Brittany Ferries is also getting one, so Stena will only have 2 left.

No... this was reported "CEO Per Westling at Stena RoRo says to Maritime magazine that the newbuilding to DFDS is the fifth ropax vessel in the series, that is, the first option declared.
- All newbuilds in the series have employment, three go to Stena Line, one to Brittany Ferries and one to DFDS."

Stena have an option of a further 4 E-Flexers on top of the first 4, the fact that that a 5th has been ordered means that if Stena can find long term charters for 3 more, or decide they want another 3 for longer term fleet replacement, then it is possible that 8 E-Flexers could be built.

Connemara needs a bit more work than expected, it seems it returned from its charter to Anek in poor condition, it is now in for an unexpected drydock, from what I hear it may not leave drydock until May 5th.

Under International rules once the UK leaves the EU, if no trade deal is agreed then duty free sales are permitted once an international frontier is crossed irrespective of who it inconveniences, we will have to see what kind of final Brexit settlement is reached before being able to see what the status of duty free will be (for example right now if there were a no deal scenario a Carlingford Lough ferry would qualify for duty free sales as it crosses an international frontier as ridiculous as that sounds).
I can not see anyone investing in any Ireland - UK service until the final details of Brexit are known, and we are a long way from that yet.
Assuming all goes well with Brexit there is demand for a Cork to UK service, however Swansea is dead as a ferry port, there are a small number of ships in the Blue Star and Hellenic fleets that are suitable for the route but the business case for those ships is questionable at best, essentially Swansea port and its infrastructure belongs to a different era and they just dont build ships like those any more.
The only realistic options for a new UK service out of Cork are direct to the Bristol freight hub with something like a Visentini to undermine the Rosslare operators for unaccompanied freight units (potential new role for MV Connemara when its Brittany Ferries charter is up?) but as a passenger service it would be a long and basic service that I am not sure would attract many passengers.
Other than that if one had REALLY deep pockets you could go toe to toe with Irish Ferries on a Cork - Pembroke service, but you would want a fast ship to enable a viable turnaround time and nerves of steel to go with those deep pockets to take on Irish Ferries in such a direct way.
For the moment the best bet is to watch how fast Cork develops when the city boundary is massively extended next year and what effect that has on Rosslare operations in terms of the pulling power of the Port of Cork once the new Brittany Ferries schedule is bedded in.

I cant see Ulysses needing an upgrade to be honest, the only work that ship really needs for the foreseeable future is its annual repaint and overhaul of mechanical units, as said above the ship is in great condition and does the job its doing very well, perhaps in a few years a refresh of her public area's might be in order, but you could hardly point to any interior section as being dated or worn out.

If passenger demand is high enough you might see Bretagne or Normanide added to the route next year as a nice retirement home once Honfluer comes onstream, also worth noting that Bretagne will be visiting Cork in late October covering the final Saturday sailing of the season.

Might depend on who owns the trademark - that is if its actually registered.

It is quite possible that these two could make their way to the Baltic to replace older tonnage when the four newbuilds enter service out of Belfast.

The logistics of building in a different continent with a whole raft of senior personnel being based for months on end near a distant shipyard is in its own right costly and disruptive for smaller companies like BF who don't have a specific newbuilding division. Never mind the inherent risks of building at a less experienced yard. It becomes a much more marginal decision when the disruption and additional costs are factored in.

Stena have business divisions who specialise in this sort of thing and Destination Gotland are a special case, being a risk-taking, essentially family-owned business who subcontract almost everything they do on the newbuilding side to Knud E Hansen.

As for capacity - like Mont St Michel over Normandie the new vessel is a step up in freight capacity, reflecting the needs of the route. Why would BF build a Pride of Rotterdam sized ship for a route which doesn't need it? It's a route where each ship does three sailings a day so carries considerably more traffic each day than the P&O North Sea ships which have lengthy turnarounds and don't deposit their traffic at one end into a seaside resort. Spending money on building and then lugging around empty space is a quick way to lose money.

Conversions aren't easy either - is the Stena Baltica's hull strong enough to cope with accommodation modules bolted on? The Armorique is the same hull design but doesn't have an upper freight deck and BF don't really have a tradition of over-engineering their ships to enable significant future conversion.

Stena Baltica can indeed be modified to the same spec as Armorique, it was designed to be extended at some stage in its career if needed and blueprints for the extensions/modifications exist, however given that the ship is currently gainfully employed with a large stable company who are prompt in paying their bills there is no reason to withdraw from that work, and the ship may find its way back on to Brittany Ferries work at some stage in the future.
Brittany Ferries have at least two ships that are approaching the end of their useful lives, and two more that may struggle with future emissions standards, given the absence of modern tonnage on the secondhand market a newbuild (with a few more in mind) is the best option under current market conditions.

I am looking forward to seeing the interior spec , keep in mind this is the first time ICG have built a cruise ferry , their ropax designs set standards when introduced so I am very curious to see what their concept for a cruise ferry is.

Latest image of the newbuild.