The Board of Directors of Strintzis Lines Shipping S.A. announces that consolidated profit before tax rose by 83.3% in the nine months to 30th September, 2003 compared to the same period of the previous year. Consolidated turnover rose by 10.6% over the same period of last year.

Specifically, nine-month results for the current year compared to the same period of 2002 stood at:

(in thousand Euro)	2003		2002		change%
Turnover	105,813		95,707		10.6%
Earnings before Interest and Depreciation	25,867		21,102		22.6%
Profit before tax	6,186		3,374		83.3%

The substantial improvement in Group results is attributed mainly to the increase of passenger and private vehicle volumes carried in the Greek Island market by the Group vessels. The Group has deployed the ultra-modern newly-built vessels Blue Star Paros, Blue Star Naxos and Blue Star Ithaki on the Piraeus - Cycladic Islands routes, Blue Star 1 on the Piraeus - Dodecanese Islands route and since March, 2003, Blue Star 2 on the Piraeus - Chania Crete route. The combination of high quality services and speed offered by the Blue Star vessels has made them extremely popular among travelers and hauliers and the ships have captured strong market shares in the passenger, private vehicle and freight unit markets on the routes on which they are deployed. In addition, the satisfactory operation of Superferry II and SeaJet 2, both deployed on the Rafina - Cycladic Islands routes and Kefalonia which operates between the port of Patras and the islands of Kefalonia and Ithaca, contributed to the improvement of Group results.

The Group's fleet up to 30th September, 2003, has carried in total, on all routes:

	2003		2002		change%
Passengers	3,340,092		2,459,300		35.8%
Private vehicles	476,846		376,781		26.6%
Freight units	90,710		99,306		-8.7%

The substantial improvement in Group financials owing to the successful operation of the Group's fleet in the Greek Islands market where the Group has focused its activities in the past year, support the Group's strategy of a considerable investment programme undertaken in the last few years and which has only recently been concluded.