Stena/Naviera Armas - comment

P&O Ferries, owned by DP-Wold in Dubai and the UK’s largest ferry operator, has asked all ships to remain in port today “ahead of a major announcement”. Press is speculating on mass lay-offs, while the company is keen to stress that it will not go into liquidation. Clearly that announcement won’t be positive, but more importantly it has negative connotations for Stena - one of its main competitors - and also Naviera Armas. Like its rivals, UK based P&O has been struck by falling volumes from the pandemic and more recently by rising fuel costs. However, the UK operator has also seen a major impact from Brexit. What is interesting however, is that Stena Line for instance have shown significant improvement in the last 3 quarters, suggesting P&O should also be doing better.