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TWST: Could we begin with a brief historical sketch of Irish Continental Group (London: ICG.L) and an overview of where you stand today?

Mr. O’Dea: In its current incarnation, Irish Continental Group has been around since 1973, but some constituent parts of the Company have actually existed since the early 1800s -- original steam packets or mail boats operating between Ireland and the UK started in the 1800s. But just looking at the more recent past, Irish Continental Group was formed in 1973 to operate a passenger and freight service between Ireland and France. It expanded by acquiring other lines and at this stage we are the largest Irish shipping company. We have a strong market position operating ferry routes, that is roll-on roll-off ferries, carrying passengers and trucks on the shortest routes between Ireland and the UK, and also between Ireland and France. Also, we have an extensive short sea container freight network connecting the northwest ports of Europe such as Rotterdam, Le Havre and Antwerp with the East and South Coast ports of the UK - Felixstowe Southampton, etc. -- and Ireland -- Dublin, Cork and Belfast. That’s an overview of what we do. In terms of our size, our turnover is about Euro 330 million annually. We employ around 1500 people and our market capitalisation is about Euro 150 million. I suppose we are most noted over the last number of years for our extensive ferry building program. We acquired the state-owned ferry company, B&I Line, in 1992. In the early 90’s, we had identified that B&I’s ships were too small and, looking at Ireland’s economy, with 97% or 98% of all goods being exported and imported by sea, we realized there was a disproportionately small amount of freight business being carried by B&I. So, having identified this market niche which was not being served we seized the opportunity to build bigger ships and thereby achieve economies-of-scale and capacity for growth. The first new generation ferry we ordered was in 1995, the “Isle of Innisfree”, which was in its day a very big ship. It could carry 100 trucks compared with about 25 trucks for the type of vessel that B&I was operating at that time. So we quadrupled capacity with only a minimal increase in operating costs. That was so successful that in 1997 we built the “Isle of Inishmore”, which was the largest ferry of its kind built in Europe that year with a capacity of 2,200 passengers and 122 trucks. Then, in 1999, we commissioned an 800 passenger fast ferry in Australia, the “Jonathan Swift”, which operates Dublin to Holyhead. And most recently, in July 2000, for delivery in 2001, we commissioned the largest car ferry in the world, named “Ulysses”, which now operates on our key Dublin-Holyhead route. We now have one of the most modern fleets in Europe.

TWST: From the standpoint of a potential investor, what benchmarks or metrics would you recommend using to effectively gauge your progress and properly assess how successful you are?

Mr. O’Dea: We are very EPS driven. Our EPS has grown 17% compound per annum since April 1988 and that continues to be our target. Ironically, our PE hasn’t changed in that period. So our share price has more or less increased by the same compound rate per annum over the last fourteen years which is a reasonable return. I think the investment case now for our company is that we have just had a difficult 2-3 years. In 1999, we were hit by duty free abolition. It was abolished on one day, which is a very difficult measure to handle as opposed to a phased abolition. Then in 2001, we had foot-and-mouth disease. We have now put these events behind us. We have the assets in place and we are well poised to resume EPS growth and hopefully, improve on that 17% growth over the next 10-12 years. There is market guidance from the analysts that does show a pretty good recovery in EPS this year. I can’t really comment specifically on it, but the market consensus is for EPS of around 80 cents for this year. Our share price is in the region of EURO 5.50 in the last couple of weeks which is a p/e multiple of less than 7 times, which says something about the markets and the opportunities they throw up.