The story
Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises owned by the Livanos family, a hydrofoils company active in the Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Sporades islands was established in 1984. It was renamed Minoan Flying Dolphins (MFD) in 1999. Pantelis Sfinias (Greek: Παντελής Σφηνιάς) had convinced many prominent Greek businessmen to purchase stakes in MFD. His plan was to use the raised capital for purchasing small traditional ferry companies and eventually consolidate the Greek ferry industry.
Within a few months, MFD grew rapidly through a barrage of vessel purchases from companies such as Agapitos, Agoudimos, Nomikos Lines, Ventouris Ferries, Goutos, etc.
Soon, MFD controlled a market share exceeding 90% in several routes.
In addition to its fleet of conventional vessels, MFD operated a number of high-speed craft ordered from Austal.
However, plans of taking the company public collapsed after the Greek stock market crash in the fall of 1999 and the sinking of MFD's Express Samina on 26 September 2000, in which 82 people perished.
Two months later, under strong pressure from the stockholders and the media, Sfinias committed suicide by throwing himself out of his sixth floor office window.
MFD was renamed to Hellas Flying Dolphins in the summer of 2001 and Hellenic Seaways in 2005, following the consolidation of its subsidiaries Hellas Ferries, Saronikos Ferries, and Sporades Ferries. Minoan Lines continued to own a large stake exceeding 30% in Hellenic Seaways until 2018, when it was sold to Attica Group.
In August 2009, Hellenic Seaways purchased the single-ship, budget cruise line easyCruise from founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
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In 2011, it operated more than 35 vessels, servicing more than 35 ports in the Cyclades, North East Aegean, South East Aegean, Crete, Argosaronikos, and Sporades.
In January 2011, Minoan Lines (Heraklion) cancelled the sale of its 33.35% stake in Hellenic Seaways to ANEK and tried to find a new buyer for it.
In June 2018, Minoan Lines (Heraklion) sold its 48.53% stake in Hellenic Seaways to Attica Group for €78.5 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hellenic Seaways, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4