Tallink Superfast Limited, a subsidiary of Estonian shipping company AS Tallink Grupp, has penned an agreement with Italy's Medinvest SpA (Corsica Ferries Group) to sell the fast ferry Superstar for EUR91.5m (USD98.3m).

Concurrently, AS Tallink Grupp and Medinvest SpA signed a bareboat charter agreement, under which Tallink will continue to operate the fast ferry Superstar on its Tallinn-Helsinki route shuttle service until beginning of 2017, when the Tallink's new LNG fast ferry will start to operate on the same route.

Change of the ownership and start of the charter period of the fast ferry Superstar are expected to be carried out in December 2015.

Tallink said that the sale of the fast ferry Superstar would result in one-off book loss of EUR7.6m in the fourth quarter of 2015 financial year.

"The cash proceeds from the sale will be used mainly to repay loans to continue the deleveraging strategy and for the down payment of the new LNG fast ferry under construction. The Group expects to incur one-off costs from premature termination of the loan contract, related to the sale of the vessel," explained the company.