Isle of Man ferry group chairman resigns early

ISLE OF MAN Steam Packet Company, the ferry operator that faced a hostile bid from Sea Containers last year, said yesterday that Norman Corlett, its 71-year- old chairman, had resigned.

The company said he was due to retire at the year-end, but brought forward his resignation because of his wife's ill-health.

David Dixon, managing director, said the new chairman would be named shortly. He refused to comment on whether a representative of Sea Containers, still a 41 per cent shareholder, would be appointed.

Sea Containers already has two non-executive directors on the Isle of Man ferry operator's board. They are James Sherwood, president of Sea Containers, and Mike Aiken, vice president of the ferries division.

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's ferry services have recently been advertised in Sea Containers' brochures and the former has discussed using Sea Containers' Sea Cat fast craft on its routes.

Isle of Man Steam Packet's 1992 interim pre-tax profits fell sharply to pounds 360,000 from pounds 821,000. Mr Dixon blamed a pounds 145,000 severance cost for making six catering managers redundant and the pounds 265,000 cost of vessel overhauls for the reduction.

But passenger levels are also down on this time last year. In particular, Mr Dixon said that the number of tourists visiting the Isle of Man has fallen.

Turnover rose to pounds 11.25m from pounds 10.88m. Earnings per share fell to 2.5p from 4.9p. The dividend, held at 3p, was uncovered.

The company is still looking for opportunities to reduce its dependency on ferry and freight traffic between the Isle of Man and the mainland.

The shares fell 12p to 168p.