The company is the eighth most profitable in the country according to a Mediobanca survey

A recent survey by Mediobanca has placed Costa Crociere S.p.A as the eighth most profitable company in Italy.

The survey also placed Costa Crociere S.p.A in 49th place with regard to revenue and the company has taken on the second highest number of new employees over the last year.

For the third year running, Costa Crociere S.p.A. stands out at the top of the rankings in the survey of leading Italian companies carried out by Mediobanca’s Research Unit, comprising over 3,700 Italian enterprises that recorded revenue of at least 50 million Euros over the last fiscal year.  According to the findings of the study, the number one European cruise company has further improved its business performance.

In the most recent edition of the survey, dealing with corporate results for the fiscal year of 2009, the Italian company has climbed further up the rankings of the country’s best-performing businesses:  Costa Crociere S.p.A. moved up to eighth place in the standings in terms of profitability, with a net income of 442 million Euros (it was ranked tenth in 2008), and is in 49th place in terms of size, with a revenue of 2.6 billion Euros in 2009 (compared to 65th place the year before).

Regarding the number of employees, Mediobanca’s research shows that Costa Crociere S.p.A. is second in terms of employment growth over the previous year, both in absolute terms, with 4,393 new recruits and in relative terms (24.6% more employees).

As Italy’s largest Italian travel company and only cruise line, in the fiscal year of 2009 a total of around 1.8 million guests went on a cruise on board one of the ships of the Costa Crociere S.p.A. Group (comprising the brands Costa Cruises, the leader for the German-speaking market AIDA Cruises and Iberocruceros, which operates for the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets).  The number of total guests is expected to reach 2.1 million in 2010.

At present, the Costa Crociere S.p.A. Group has a total of 25 ships in service (14 for Costa Cruises, seven for AIDA Cruises and four for Iberocruceros) with another five due by 2013 (two for Costa Cruises and three for AIDA Cruises).  All Costa Cruises and AIDA ships fly the Italian flag.

Costa Cruises’ fleet expansion programme began in 2000 and all new ships will be in service by 2012.  Two of these new ships are currently under construction in Marghera:  the first, Costa Favolosa (114,500 gross tonnage and 3,780 total guests), is due to enter service in summer 2011, while the second, the sister ship Costa Fascinosa, will be ready in spring 2012, by which time the Costa Cruises fleet will be 16-strong.

In overall terms, the fleet investment programme launched by the Costa Crociere S.p.A. Group in 2000 is worth more than 9.6 billion Euros.  Based on the present size of the fleet, in 2013 the Group will have 30 ships in service.