ANEK Lines (Ανώνυμη Ναυτιλιακή Εταιρεία Κρήτης, Anonymi Naftiliaki Eteria Kritis, Anonymous Shipping Company of Crete) is one of the largest passenger shipping companies in Greece. It was founded in 1967 by numerous shareholders who were inhabitants of Crete. It operates passenger ferries, mainly on Piraeus-Crete and Adriatic Sea lines.
Today the company is listed on the Athens Stock Exchange () and 28.12% owned by Attica Group.
Also Amalia Vardinoyiannis holds a 22.34% stake through her holding company Varmin.
History
In Crete protests broke out after the Typaldos Lines car ferry capsized due to a series of safety regulations violations. The ship sank on her way from Chania to Piraeus on 8 December 1966, resulting in the death of more than 200 people.
In the aftermath a few hundreds of Cretans (traders, free-lancers, pensioners, farmers) following a proposal by the Association of Economists of the Chania Prefecture and the support of the Metropolitan of Kissamos and Selinos, Irineos Galanakis, implement their idea to found a multi-shareholder shipping company.
Therefore, on
1967 - 10 April, ANEK Lines was founded with its head offices located at Chania. At the beginning only born Cretans could hold stocks in ANEK Lines. 1970 The company's first F/B vessel Kydon started servicing the route Piraeus-Chania 1973 The F/B's Candia and Rethymo started servicing the route Piraeus-Iraklion 1978 The F/B Kriti started daily servicing the route Piraeus-Chania 1987 The F/B Apterastarted servicing the route Piraeus-Chania New route Crete-Thessaloniki started (route closed then suddenly) 1989 The F/B's Lato and Lissos started servicing the route Patras-Corfu/Igoumenitsa-Ancona New blue-yellow corporate identity introduced The F/B Kydon was sold. 1992 ANEK Lines new flagship the F/B El. Venizelos started servicing the route Greece-Italy. F/B Talos started servicing the route Patras-Trieste 1994 New route opened, Patras-Igoumenitsa-Bari, but already ceased the following year 1997 The F/B's Kriti I & Kriti II started new nonstop Patras-Ancona service 1998 Share-capital increase and initial public offering (IPO) for the company's stocks in the Athens Stock Exchange F/B "Sokofles V" starts operating the route to Northern Italy (Patras-Trieste) Take over some stakes in DANE 1999 The company's stocks started trading on the Athens Stock Exchange on 21 January 1999 ANEK Lines purchases 50% of the share-capital of LANE (Ag. Nikolaos), with the assignment of the F/B Talos. ANEK Lines merge with RETHYMNIAKI and integrate their ships F/B Prevelis and F/B Arkadi into the fleet ANEK Lines ITALIA s.r.l.was founded. ANEK Lines holds 51% of its shares ANEK Lines buys 16.5% of NEL Lines ANEN was founded. ANEK Lines holds 20% of its shares