Äripäev wrote on Wednesday that Tallink has begun negotiations for a takeover, and that preliminary agreements have been signed. The content of the takeover bid is to be made public at the end of January, the paper said.

By 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday 185 transactions concerning Tallink shares with a total turnover of €811,600 were registered, and the share price climbed by 5.41 percent from €1.170.

Tallink announced a process in July this year during which new core investors might join the company's owners, while some of the existing shareholders might divest their shares. The supervisory board decided to start an exploratory process relating to potential strategic options of the company. Citigroup Global Markets was appointed as the financial advisor in this process.

The strategic options under consideration would need to support Tallink's long-term strategy and could be linked with involving new core investors, which again may result in some of the existing shareholders divesting their shares, whether by way of a voluntary or mandatory take-over offer for the company or otherwise, Tallink said earlier this year.

The company would make no further announcements relating to this process unless this is required or appropriate, it added. No assurances could be given that any transaction would occur as a result of this process.

According to the company's stock exchange announcement, Citigroup Venture Capital International Growth Partnership (Employee) II L.P. on July 6 granted the right of first refusal to Baltic Cruises Holding L.P. to purchase any or all of the shares in the company, which owns 16.1 percent of Tallink, and Baltic Cruises Investment L.P., which owns 5.51 percent of the shipper.

The three companies also agreed only to divest shares they owned in the same transaction, at the same time, on the same economic terms, including price, and otherwise on substantially similar terms. The agreement is to be terminated when none of the companies hold shares in Tallink anymore.

The three companies own altogether 23.68 percent or 158.6 million shares in Tallink Group.

The price of the package of shares is estimated at approximately €150 million.

The biggest shareholder of Tallink Grupp is Infortar AS, the investment company of Estonian businessmen Ain Hanschmidt, Enn Pant, and Kalev Järvelill. Infortar owns a stake in Tallink Grupp of 38 percent.