The Spanish conglomerate Acciona is again contemplating on selling its shipping division, Trasmediterranea. The plan is to put it on the market from the end of this year. The sale will enable to company to concentrate its core business activities in water, energy, and infrastructure. The group’s director of corporate development, Juan Muro Lara, described Trasmediterranea as "a non strategic asset," Alan Lam reports.

Acciona acquired the previously state owned ferry business in 2000 for €300 million. This will not be the first time the group wants to sell it. Back in 2009, through the Spanish bank BBVA, it put the division on the market for €850 million. Unfortunately, owing to the then prevailing macroeconomic environment, no interested party was found on that occasion.

In recent years the division has been aggressively expanding its shore side service and cruise handling businesses in the Mediterranean. Only recently it was granted two-year passenger handling licenses in the Balearic Islands.

According to figures just out, Trasmediterranea - which operates 18 ferries and RoRo vessels, as well as occasional chartered units, in the Mediterranean and a link to the Canary Islands - in the first half of 2014 suffered a 13.4% reduction in passenger numbers and 17.4% fall in vehicle flow, despite a 5.9% growth in freight intake, resulting in a 1.0% fall in revenue, to €185 million.

This is regarded as the latest in a series of strategic moves made by the group, as, in recent years, Acciona has already disposed of its wind farm businesses in Germany and South Korea, a hospital in Canada, as well as various concessions in Spain.