Estonia, Port, Transport

Lindaliini manager Enn Rohula told the news portal of ERR that he hasn't abandoned the plan to restart the service, however. He said  resumption of service has been stalled by the drop in the number of tourists, which made the investor and banks anxious.

"As I get it, vodka prices are about to fall a lot, but the prices of beer by relatively less, and whether that will put an end to cross-border trade -- I very much fear that the main interest in cross-border trade lies namely in beer. There will be a rather significant difference left between what it [the price] is on the Estonian market and the Latvian market," Rohula said.

"Whether that will have an effect, because the Finns are going down there a lot to buy beer -- will be seen in the near future," Rohula said.

Lindaliini AS sold its two catamarans and office building in Tallinn in 2017.

Last year Rohula said he was planning to acquire a new boat and had chosen one already, but the service was not resumed.

Rohula said that the boat selected in 2018 was never bought because another boat was about to become available around year-end, which is even better suited for the operation than the one they had chosen in 2018. According to Rohula, the acquisition of the boat last year never materialized because of the investor, but also because of a dispute with the main shareholder.

A court in May 2018 declared the parent company of Lindaliini, Linda Line Shipping OU, bankrupt.

As recently as in 2016, Lindaliini made a profit of 1.8 mln euros on sales of over 6.7 mln euros. The company has not filed its accounts for 2017, and according to the credit information website Taust.ee they have two tax arrears and one tax default.

Rohula ascribed the arrears and the default to the company's being out of business. 

Rohula is also the manager of another company, Lindaline HT AS, established in January 2018. He said the business was established for operation in the freight shipping business outside of passenger shipping and operation of fast boats, but declined to give any further details.