We are starting with today's annual general meeting for shareholders. Welcome. This is the cruise terminal of Port of Tallinn. It's a special day today because on one hand, because we have a very important obligation, which is the meeting today. At the same time, it is a special day because this is when our cruise season is starting. You can see from the window from the first cruise vessel, which is Borealis, which came from the U.K. To us, it came from Stockholm, it's going to leave about 10:00 P.M. and go to Helsinki. We are expecting 100 cruise vessels this year to Tallinn. Now, regarding the meeting today.
We have here Riho Unt, who is the Chairman of the board, Valdo Kalm and Andrus Ait, from our management board, and we have here Erly Lüdig, Head of Legal Department, but who takes the minutes of the meeting, and the voting is carried out by ARS Corporate Services OÜ, and managed by Annela Pugovkina. I'm the Head of the Marketing Communication Department, Sirle Arro, and I'm going to be the Chair of the meeting. First of all, I would like to introduce the regulation and the voting order of the meeting. It's quite thorough, so I would like to read it out for you. In order to make sure that the meeting goes in the best possible way, please set your mobile phones on a silent mode.
When it comes to the decisions and drafts, decisions, then you were able to familiarize yourself with them before the meeting and download your voting slips on the website. I hope you were able to do that. All the draft decisions which will be voted will be displayed on the screen and read out loud. The share capital is EUR 263 million, which has been divided into nominal value shares, which each gives one vote. The shareholders who are physically present will vote using their remote devices. I will tell you later how these remote devices will work. These voters who have voted before the meeting are counted as present, and therefore, they are part of the quorum of the meeting.
There is a possibility to ask questions after each agenda point. Regarding any other questions, you have a chance to submit your questions after we have terminated the agenda. All the questions shall be asked with a microphone, and when you're asking your question, please introduce yourself and raise your hand. All the proposals, dissenting opinions, and should be submitted in a written form, and please hand them over to the person taking the minutes of the meeting. The voting will take place after the presentation of each agenda points and at the end of the question- and- answer sessions. Voting results will be disclosed after the votes have been counting. If you would like to take the floor regarding any topic in the agenda, please let us know in writing.
Again, please take it to the person who takes the minutes of the meeting. For presentations, you have up to five minutes. According to the Commercial Code, when it comes to the decisions in the agenda points 1 to 5, they have been adopted if we get more than half of the votes. After we have concluded the agenda, the shareholders can ask questions from the management board members or the chairman. Regarding the members of the press, please do not issue any publications, and please do not inform anybody of the decisions made until we have made the press release for the stock exchange, which will be done today. Now moving on to the agenda.
First of all, we have a welcome from the majority shareholders, Kristen Michal, Minister of Climate. Then we will hear from Riho Unt, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Valdo Kalm, CEO, will give an annual review and future outlook. We'll hear Andrus Ait, CFO, of financial results and dividend proposals. Then we're going to be voting the decisions of the shareholder meetings, and then we'll have a networking possibility with members of the Management and Supervisory Board. I would like to remind you how the voting works. The first agenda point is 2023 approval of the annual report. We have profit allocation. Third point of the election of members of the Nomination Committee. Fourth point is determination of remuneration for the members of the Nomination Committee.
The last point is the approval of the shareholders' expectations. Now let's see what the Minister of Climate has said.
Dear participants of the annual general meeting. One year has gone again. The Port of Tallinn has done a really good work. The good news is that we see that the number of passengers are recovering faster than expected. Last year, over almost 8 million passengers. The same is true for ferries. We've seen a record year, both for vehicles and passengers. What is positive is that the client feedback has been very high. We have had different events. For example, when it comes to Icebreaker Botnica, we've had new clients, new works. The port which makes us really happy is supporting sustainability. We have a corporate social responsibility gold certificate to show for it.
What are our expectations for the port? Port is one of the most important enterprises here. If you talk about our future activities, as the management board is working on it, then one of them is the quay built in the Paldiski South Harbour. It's very important for the offshore wind farms, and it is very important also for the improvement of military capabilities in Estonia. Second point is Estonian-Finland Green Corridor Corporation project, which guarantees sustainable travel between Estonia and Finland. In addition to that, the port is active in many different fields. It concerns sustainable energy, renewable energy sources, and we also want to make sure that we are very competitive, so we can be ranking at the top level in our region. I would like to wish everybody all the best in these endeavors, and hopefully, the next year will be even more successful.
Now, I would like to invite here the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Mr. Riho Unt.
Dear shareholders, dear colleagues, dear guests. My name is Riho Unt, second year now, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and I've been member of the Supervisory Board for longer than that. Now, I would like to give you an overview of the Supervisory Board understanding of 2023 activities, and I would like to refer to some of the important points. We've had no changes in the Supervisory Board members. We have five members out of seven who are independent or the majority shareholders.
If we're looking at the activities of the supervisory board last year, then 2023 was a bit different than 2022, because 2022, we had a lot of tactical meetings, crisis management due to the war in Ukraine. But now 2023 has been more focused on future, new businesses, and strategies. The situation is quite clear now, because east-west trade is not going to recover in near future, and the business environment near us is not very active. Therefore, Port of Tallinn has a very important role to play when it comes to building new businesses.
Looking at the group strategy, which we review once a year, last year we did not have to do any major changes because the initiated business strategy process are ongoing, so we are just adjusting things we need to do. Since the business environment is complicated, and the Port of Tallinn has been going from one crisis to another, and since we've had a very good and balanced business model, we have been able to earn a profit. This also means we have new growth projects to continue with. This is when the supervisory board had to make a decision what's going to happen with the chairman contract, because last year this contract term was over. In order to understand what is going to happen, so supervisory board carried out a survey. We looked at 50 people across Estonia.
We communicated with about 11 people, and then the Remuneration Committee had a interview with three candidates. Supervisory Board preferred experience, shown results, and strategy development. I'm very happy that Valdo Kalm was agreed to continue as the Chairman of the Management Board for the next three years. Next point is the new auditor. A new auditor is present here as well, so we are appointing a new auditor. As of 2018, the external auditor was KPMG, and as it is for any company, it's good to change auditors every now and then because new audit team is going to come and take a fresh look at the company. Often it means that maybe this is a good time to shake up the existing activities.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is definitely going to offer all that to us. What is important is internal audit, setting the goals, and to make sure that the management board is actually implementing the proposals suggested by the internal audit. If we are looking at the focus of the supervisory board, when it comes to the Port of Tallinn, then innovation is very important. Innovation is a competitive advantage for the port. Taking this into account and looking at, the our position is no longer an advantage because we have less cargo moving east than west, then innovation is what is going to bring us a new clients and new business. We want to make sure that we are fulfilling the goals for shareholders, so it's important communication, and also want to make sure we pay our dividends.
We are looking at the passengers. During the coronavirus, we had less passengers, now we see a recovery. We have had less cargo due to the war. The port has been very successful when it comes to the balanced business model. We can see that the management has to work towards the recovery of business volumes and to make sure that we implement a new ideas. We are responsible in the management, this concerns business, environment, and social dimensions. This is not only us, but also our partners. We are expecting this as from the shipping companies and all the companies present on the territory of the port. What is also important for us is to have a management culture based on the values.
The aim is to have good cooperation, development, smart work organization. I have a few words here to say regarding a case presented in Delfi Meedia, where they mentioned that TS Shipping have a management problem. This is TS Shipping, which has management problems, because TS Shipping is a very important business unit for us. We can see a very good growth potential here, especially when it comes to the implementation new business regarding the maintenance of offshore shipping and offshore wind farms. TS Shipping ambition has grown and changed a lot. Therefore, the changes taking place are important. At the same time, we can see that the new manager has rushed some of the decisions, creating opposition among the employees.
We have learned from it, the management is helping us to continue, make sure we have peace at work. This is important because we have ambitious goals to fulfill. Regarding risks, if we have escalation of conflicts, it has an impact to us. If we look at the economic recession, the solution has been our well-balanced business model. Real estate market and the recession at present is an issue because we have 56 hectares for real estate development. It's about half a million, which is on land development. Of course, the port does not want to take over the position of big real estate developers in Estonia.
We are landlord, at the same time, we have to be quite smart enough to make sure that looking at the timing and looking at the added value offered to shareholders, it is the most important point for us. Botnica, we have work in Canada and also for BP offshore. Last year we started and we concluded this year. As I said before, business environment and market has changed. That means we have to find new possibilities to earn revenue, which is what we do today, to make sure that these new business areas will be implemented in a successful way, and they're profitable. Therefore, we decided to increase the number of management board members and business development function has to be on the level of the management board.
It was decision made last year already. Now, the port is making pay more attention to quay position managers. The port has a lot of people. We have 500 employees, but many functions and quay roles are such where we don't have the capability to have overlap or next generation available. For the port, if you have somebody of the quay executives leaving, that might mean a five-nine months onboarding and recruitment process. It's important to know that if some of the quay executive positions decides to leave, we have already person ready to replace them. This year, if so far we had volume profitability, important projects, green topics, which are part of the motivation package. Satisfaction is important for the workforce and clients.
This year, we also included the share rate of return, so that the aim is to link the shareholder and workforce interest. We have a 5% performance plan related to the share price and dividends. The Port of Tallinn is a very good and stable, profitable company. We can see that our capability to pay dividends, although we do have ambitious investment plans, and today already we have projects ongoing in order to recover profitability or exist today's profitability. In addition to strategy and workforce and risk management, it's important for us how we carry out our work. As the minister mentioned, we're very happy if we get recognition from other parties as well. We have received the Responsible Business Forum in Estonia Gold Certificate, which is very important for us.
TS ships have it as well, and we are positioning number 8 according to EMOR studies on reputable employee employers. This is the end of my brief presentation. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them now.
Please raise your hand if you have any questions for the chairman of the supervisory board. There are no questions. Thank you very much. Now please, Valdo Kalm, the chairman of the management board, who give us an overview of last year and will talk about future outlook.
Good afternoon, dear shareholders. As the Chairman of the Supervisory Board mentioned, a balanced business model has helped us to overcome a different crisis. We can see recovery in passenger numbers, so 5% growth on 1st quarter. This is tourists coming from Finland and Sweden. I am happy to note that. When it comes to cargo harbours, the 1st quarter is showing signs of recovery due to container business and Ro-Ro business, because this shows us the situation of export-import in Scandinavia, and we can see 1st positive signs, which I hope ongoing.
Icebreaker Botnica last year worked hard. We had several projects ongoing. This year we have some contracts in place, and in ferries we have a record year for trips for passengers and also for vessels. What were the most notable events of last year? What will provide us foundation for the future? In addition to our regular business, we are thinking about other growth projects. That might mean new pricing in the cargo sector.
We need to find new models. One of them is Paldiski South Harbour new quay, which is for construction and maintenance, mainly aim for offshore wind farms. Through Paldiski, we actually are offering services for other wind farms, all the services provided through our Harbour. The construction work is ongoing. We have a picture here as well, where you can see the current situation. Another important project was signed last year in the autumn, where the Port of Tallinn and Port of Helsinki in cooperation Tallink, Eckerö Line, Viking Line, and two cities, and Minister of Climate from Estonia, were in a collaboration signing Estonian-Finnish Green Corridor project. Last bigger investment project for our main business is reconstruction of Terminal A. We carried out an architectural competition.
We signed a contract. The design works are ongoing this year. Another successful project was a double ramp at Muuga Harbour, so of two levels, not only passenger vehicles, but cargo vehicles can be loaded, and Eckerö Line added another departure per day. This is very good revenue for us and this is a project which is functioning very well. This is Ro-Ro traffic between Muuga and Vuosaari, and will take some big cargo trucks out of the city of Tallinn. At Muuga Harbour, we have a new warehouse, which is for mostly dry bulk and fertilizers. Our good partner, operator PK Terminal, had a good investment there. As of this summer, they are operating in a new complex. We had an interesting procurement, which ended at the end of the year.
We won it. We won the operation procurement at LNG Terminal. This is one of the ports which actually is not owned by us. This LNG Terminal right now is ready to receive LNG tankers. It is very important for the country, it offers resilience. If something happens with Balticconnector pipeline, as it already has happened because it was damaged on purpose, as we know, that means we can have a tanker come into LNG Terminal. There's a gas pipeline which is connected to Balticconnector. We are ready to operate this. We offer remote administration. There is nobody there present, it's very interesting because it's a very good remote administration project for us. Of course, we're interested in receiving commercial vessels as well.
We also founded Hydrogen Valley because hydrogen and derivatives are very important. Right now, we have a hydrogen conference where we have about 100 businesses together there from the energy sector who are discussing green energy, and we want to be part of this value chain. We can see a perspective here in this particular sector. At Muuga Harbour, we had large-scale joint exercise, CREVEX, which was alive. It was exercise for large-scale accident. We did really well. We have big clients and operators there, so they worked with us really well. It was organized by the government, but the operators are all private companies, so you can't just tell them to do joint. We had to coordinate this, but I think it went really well.
We also described most important ethical principles in our code of ethics. As I mentioned, we had a record year for the Silja Line. 2.4 million passengers, 1 million vessels, these are quite big numbers. As you can see, the traffic is very busy. We had some good results for Green Marine and TS Shipping. Green Marine is our waste management company. If you look at the future, every year I have showed the maritime megatrends. It is important for us to understand what is happening the rest of the world. What is positive here is that production is coming back.
This is very interesting because we have industrial parks behind Muuga and Paldiski terminals, and we are looking forward to having industries there who are in our territory and who can transport some of the cargo on our vessels. There are many negotiations. We have some industry coming in, and there are some interesting developments in Paldiski which I can show on one slide. It is clear that the future is green, greener than ever, and we have to look at our shipping fuel as well. We need alternative fuel for vessels. We want to be a harbor who attracts vessels for bunkering. We can offer methanol or the hydrogen, so we can offer green fuel. This is our competitive advantage.
We can see that the ports, in conjunction of green corridors, offshore wind farms, we will be this kind of ecosystem, a green hub, if you will. Digitalization and automatization is of course a natural process. We have done this quite a lot, and we'll continue this. When it comes to the clients and employees, we need to work more on with both of them, so it's business as usual. We have to make sure we meet the expectations very briefly. According to business segments, we mentioned that the passenger sector is recovering. First quarter is positive. Once I would like to mention on this Green Corridor again, because it's important for more than 1 point. 1 is green transition.
This is the shareholder's expectation and its expectations for new passengers as well. When it comes to green passengers, green travel, we expect to welcome more young passengers, young families. I think it's a quay argument a few years from now. Therefore, we have described this concept which is unique in the world. There are only 40 green corridors which exist in the world. For green travel, this is the best described concept because it's in Tallinn. You take a tram to Old City Harbour. You come to the terminal, which is heated and cooled with seawater. You have a vessel which is connected to shore electricity using LNG today.
For example, in Tallinn, we have LNG fuel vessels, but the shipping lines are also thinking what kind of fuel they should be using next year, so next decade. This is all repeated in Helsinki. This entire client journey is green. I believe it is attractive because this is what the clients would like to see more and more. How do I travel? We are also looking at real estate development, so these things are connected. That means that the urban space at the Harbour corresponds to the urban space which is clean and green. Now we have reached a very important phase.
We have all the drafts, designs approved, and I hope that if everything goes well, then at the end of the year, we can make sure that some sections of these drafts have been approved, so we can start with the real estate development. The market is not very good at the moment because this is why we have to take very small steps forward. Here is the terminal reconstruction for Terminal A. This is the winning project. The design work is going on until at the end of the year. This is the winning project. Long-term vision corresponding to the megatrends is here as well. There are many components which are in works right now. This is not a pipe dream, but these are contemporary equipment which already have automated docking, shore electricity, and the terminal here as well.
Using seawater for heating and cooling. These components is already in place, so we want to make sure it's also profitable, so we want to be very using common sense. Now, when it comes to the cargo harbors, the most important projects are linked to these points here. Rail Baltica, it's very important for us, and I believe that nobody's going to ask if, but rather we should say that this is not only cargo and passenger, but it's a military strategic project. The European Union has said now very clearly that by 2030 the main route has to be completed, and this is very important.
This is very important for us because we are hoping to offer better services for Finnish and Swedish export, and we can reach all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. It's not only for Central Europe, as you can see, but to Trieste Port in Italy. There is a terminal of our client. HHLA Terminal is in Muuga, but they have a terminal in Trieste as well. They'll be happy to link them and take the cargo by train to the south. Construction starts next year at Muuga. I mentioned this before, that this is a very good position because Rail Baltica starts from our port and Muuga. This is perfect, and we can move from one railway to another, so our clients can use this multimodal transport.
I mentioned the double ramp, for the strategic purpose, it's very important for us that we can develop our north-south corridor further. We can negotiate with shipping lines that they will come to our Harbour with the trucks and containers. One of the biggest projects right now is Paldiski Offshore wind farm maintenance port. Once it's finished, this is what it looks like, this is not it. I come from Paldiski actually right now, the Paldiski is becoming this kind of energy, green energy hub where we have Enefit Green wind farm. There is Balticconnector, the gas pipeline is there. This is the LNG terminal operated by us. An important project is ammonia and hydrogen a methanol production. We are designing this right now.
We have planned for this about three hectares. These red areas are our industrial park areas, and this is perfect to have this kind of production here. We do need green energy. We need this for the vessels. Ship fuel and bunkering can go through our ports. This is the design phase right now. I discussed this topic on the local government. They are fully behind this. They do understand that this is creating jobs. This means that Paldiski is going to have this kind of green energy, maybe not a hub, but this kind of ecosystem or center. This is greatly based on our Harbour. When you look at the South Harbour, this is the works right now, a couple of weeks ago.
There's a big investment, EUR 60 million, one of the biggest investments in Estonia. The work's ongoing. They are going according to plan, they should be finished by end of next year. Once it's concluded, we would like to get clients in right now, we get new turnover. There is a great deal of interest. Today, the message of the conference for the politician was that there is a great deal of interest from Poland and Lithuania as well. If we're delaying it too much in Estonia, we'll lose in this global competition. This is a competition between countries actually. This quay is meant to service the entire Baltic Sea, it's a very unique position because we are first on this market.
It's a very special quay where you can bring in very heavy constructions, and not each harbor has this possibility, and we have a lot of land behind the Harbour as well. We have made some proposals regarding the use once it's finished. We want to get it going right away. The end of the next year is what has been planned for the end of construction right now. If you're looking at this decade, year 2030, multimodality means that you can offer services to different type of transportation. Muuga is perfect for that. Rail Baltica is very important. Wind farms, we are part of this business already, but we want to enter more into this value chain.
We want to attract more new operators, old operators as well, alternative fuel production and storage. These are very interesting project for us. These are interesting from the business point of view as well. There are things happening which are happening really fast. If everything goes as we signed a preliminary contract, then this summer in Muuga, we have a big container vessel operating on methanol, and they are requesting us to supply methanol. This is already something which is necessary now, this kind of green fuel. It is a very large company, X-Press Feeders, so they have ordered 14 large-scale methanol-based container vessels, so we're happy to receive them and are now looking for solutions how to offer them green methanol.
When it comes to shipping, we've had a very good period, and it is important to note that recently there was a procurement for the next period. We won that procurement, and the next period starts from year 2026, so it was a public procurement. We have not signed the contract yet, but we issued the release to the stock exchange that we won and we are interested in electrification of ferries. One vessel is already hybrid, so it has shown very good results when you look at the expenses. It is important for us to now figure out when exactly we'll have the electrification of Saaremaa line. Botnica icebreaker, which has been mentioned a few times before. Now, this year, we have covered Botnica with contracts, BP, so British Petroleum is there.
We'll be going out to the North Sea at the end of this month to start working. The second half of summer, we are working in Canada. We released this information to the stock exchange. We have a five-year contract with a good partner, Baffinland, so we are offering icebreaking services there. What is very important is that today we are trying to design. There's no investment decision yet, but we're designing a new vessel for maintenance and construction of offshore wind farms, so this is the SOV. Ship design, it's a very special vessel and this business shows a very good growth trend. Green transition is helping us.
What we're doing with British Petroleum, because we are dismantling the old rig, so because we are getting rid of the infrastructure of old type of fossil fuels. We do not have enough vessels here. There's a very high demand, and right now we are calculating our business plan, and we can see very good growth possibilities for next year. The decision will come in the autumn and, of course, we will be informing you of this decision as well. TS Shipping growth business is this is for us. Taking this all into account, sustainable development is very important. We measure our CO2 footprint at every port, and the biggest footprint is left by our own vessels if you look at the port group.
This pink here, or rather orange here, has the biggest share. Why is it going up? We have included additional trips as requested by the state, and this has an impact on CO2 levels. We have to consider very carefully not only our own electricity consumption, because we only use green electricity by AS Tallinna Sadam, the Port of Tallinn. It also includes heating, it also includes our shipping, what kind of investments we make. We want to reduce our ecological footprint. We, many other measures we use, automated mooring, shore electricity, and we have also finished the pipeline for wastewater. It was before in the Old City Harbour, now also in Muuga. Green Marine is sending the ship waste into circulation as much as possible.
This is it from me, and I'll be happy to answer your questions.
Please introduce yourself. Because we are recording this event, and we'll be sending this recording to you later.
My name is Urmas Marti. I'm a small-scale shareholder, and I would like to thank the Management Board Chairman for this presentation. Few questions. Regarding Hydrogen Valley, are you also thinking about going outside the shipping business, maybe offer services to some other transport sector, not only vessels? Real estate development, I thought I'll ask the Supervisory Board Chair, but I didn't, so I'll ask you now. It was a very impressive amount of land, 56 hectares. What it is what you're planning to build there?
Are you planning to build for yourself? Infrastructure, for example, as this facility here, or are you planning to enter private market, for example, apartments, residential buildings? Of course you do have very valuable plots of land. Third topic. If we are talking about cruise lines, we have the first one here. Well, they're going to leave, another one will come. Did I understand correctly, you had a period of time when you received 300 cruise vessels per year, today we are slowly recovering, we are planning for 100 this year. I hope this will go up. The last question, I'm sure you can answer this the best, when I looked at your presentation of your vision, this is very good. We have to look into the future. Maybe you can tell the shareholders here and myself what your share price could be by year 2030.
Thank you very much for your question. Very quickly now. When it comes to the Hydrogen Valley, we actually have our own hydrogen strategy where we position ourselves for green fuel as a storage facility as well, because we're not planning to produce ourselves, so we are going to stay in our lane. We are looking for operators on our territory, and if necessary, we also offering bunkering for vessels, but we're not going to produce it ourselves. We are sort of enabler here, facilitator. Second question regarding real estate, indeed, real estate has great deal of potential here and the main model. Riho Unt also mentioned this, that the main model of our business is that we are landowners.
We're not developers ourselves, we give the real estate developers right to build for 99 years. If there is a very good project and makes sense for us to invest, then we're ready to do that. This is not our main competence. We are going to have both residential and business buildings here, but we have to take it step by step because nearly half a million sq m, so it's a lot of volume. We have to take it slowly and see what is happening on the market. This is really a very important site. Some big hotel chains who are not present in Estonia today have been looking at our land, and they're very interested.
Third, indeed, when it comes to cruise ships, we had peak 300. This year we are expecting over 100, so most of them come here, but 10 vessels go to Saaremaa. The recovery will take a little bit of time. It will take time because the biggest segment before were Americans, but right now they're afraid to come here because they think that we are frontline war country. This will take time, and I hope that the aid package approved by the Congress in the U.S. will help. German tourists are back. European tourists are not afraid, but we had a lot of very good American and Asian segments coming in, especially American vessels and the tourists. We have to wait for them still. We are positive, and we have made our own investments.
We are very open and flexible. What is most important, we are cooperating with Helsinki and Stockholm, we have a joint marketing. Business model itself works very well. They're doing very well at the Caribbean, they don't really make much sense to come here, but people travel more by ships and less by plane, this is a trend. We believe in this business model, we will reach 300, but I can't really tell you by when, it takes a few years. Share price, I can't really comment on that, we have all the pre-conditions in place for growth because our economic indicators are improving, we have three or four very serious growth projects, we will be soon seeing the impact.
We want to pay out dividends because during the crisis as well, we've been paying, and this is what I believe is going to keep the shareholders with us and will bring new shareholders.
Any other questions? If there are no further questions, I would like to thank the Chairman of the Management Board, and I would like to invite here CFO, Member of the Management Board, who is going to discuss the financial results of past year and will also introduce the dividend proposal.
Thank you very much. Dear shareholders, my name is Andrus Ait. I'm the CFO, and I would like to introduce to you financial outcome of 2023 and also dividend proposals. To start, looking at the passengers and visits, the ship calls and 2023, we had 7.9 million passengers, which is 30% more than the year before. Previous years, 2021, which impacted the corona pandemic, we saw a recovery from there. 7 million 2022, and in year 2023, we could see growth in all our main passenger lines, Tallinn-Helsinki, Tallinn-Stockholm, and Muuga-Vuosaari. We could see growth across all these ports. Of course, we have Tallinn-Helsinki, the busiest. This is the biggest growth as well. Percentage-wise, Tallinn-Stockholm showed the biggest growth. This year, first quarter shows us a 5% growth. As we had hoped, this growth is ongoing. Now cargo and cargo ship calls. Year 2023 was greatly impacted by sanctions.
The sanctions were applied after the first quarter of year 2022. They came in in stages. In year 2022, we could not see the full impact yet. In 2023, when it comes to dry bulk and liquid bulk, saw a great deal of reduction because they were under sanctions. From liquid bulk, the East transit was impacted, and for dry bulk it was fertilizers. Year 2022, these, during the first quarter, we could see some cargo there. Second quarter was a decline, but it was due to the general economic situation. Happy to note that first quarter, year 2024, we of the next year, we saw no further reductions. Hopefully we have now seen the lowest position, and we can see future recovery. Next, shipping.
Throughout the years, it has been one of the most stable fields for passenger ferries and also for Botnica. When it comes to passenger ferries, so we're able to service a record number of passengers and vessels. We had more trips than the year before. Demand is high, client satisfaction is high, and we won the procurement for the next period, which is very important for the stability of our future. It is a very important field for us. It's very stable, and we can see that this is ongoing. Regarding Botnica chartering, so we are measuring the charter days and rate of use. This was a little bit lower than previous years because during the summer we entered new projects which were short-term.
At the same time, revenue and the rates have gone up. Actually revenue from Botnica operations increased last year. Now financial results. Sales revenue 2023, EUR 116 million, and we have -4.2%. Why did it go down? It's because of cargo ports, where we could see less cargo and less calls. Ship calls, less impact than cargo. We could see some of the types of the revenue which went up. For example, revenue from passenger ferries, Botnica, more passengers. We had some stabilizing elements there as well. Revenue decline compared to a drop in cargo was actually a lot lower. Adjusted EBITDA, almost 12%, EUR 49.2 million.
It reflects the drop in revenue in EBITDA. For costs, we used efficiency program quite well. For operating costs, we achieved the same level than the year before, so it gave us some results. This gives very good preconditions for next years in order to overcome this low point. Now, business profit, we saw -20%. Income tax, EUR 2.9 million. This is the dividend income tax last year. It was EUR 19.2 million the year before. A little bit more than EUR 25 million, so therefore we have a difference in income tax. Profit, EUR 15.9 million compared to EUR 25.6 million the year before. Here we can see the higher interest rates having an impact.
We are hoping that Euro will start going down again. Net profit will increase accordingly. Investments in year 2023, EUR 20.7 million. Biggest investments were into ports, EUR 17 million. The biggest investment, as you could see, was the Paldiski South Harbour construction and maintenance quay. We improved Ro-Ro capabilities at Muuga. There is a possibility for wastewater reception. In the Old City Harbour, it's again Ro-Ro related investments and the construction of the tram line, and there was reconstruction of one quay, which is closest to the tram line. These were investments in the ports. Last year, Botnica had its dock works year. You do this every five years. That was about EUR 4 million. Botnica is now in good shape.
That means that Botnica can participate in the future projects, implementing the contracts which are already in place or yet to come. Now profitability across the years. Year 2020, we saw the impact of the corona crisis. You could see a little bit of recovery year 2022. We had the impact on cargo. Considering our growth projects and considering the shipping doing well, I think it's a good basis to see the growth of revenue and the EBITDA and also EBITDA margin recovering to 50%, which has been the average for the Port of Tallinn group. Now results by segments.
If you look at the segments, last year for profitability, we had the growth in the passenger ferries and passenger harbors, due to the recovery and passenger numbers, we had more ship calls as well. Revenue was more or less the same than it was in year 2022. Here we have this kind of balancing impact that we have more passengers, and this helped us to balance out the few cruise vessels. For passenger ferries, the growth was due to indexation because we have indexation in the contract, which is based on the consumer price index and fuel price, we saw a higher number of passengers. For cargo, we had an impact due to fewer ship calls and less cargo.
On EBITDA, we had less impact because we were able to do some savings for Botnica. Revenue increased, this is in the segment others. But EBITDA went down and this is due to single-time events. For example, we had the docking works, and at the same time we carried out some repairs, so it would have made sense to do them at the same time. Because we had new offshore projects last year for Equinor and BP, then we had to carry out some additional preparations and expenses. We could clearly see that this had a just one-time impact, and over the next periods, we presume that this same impact will not occur. This is it.
Now we have reached the voting stage. Any questions for Andrus? There are no questions, we will continue now with the most important part of the event. This is the voting for the outcome. First of all, the share capital is EUR 263 million. I'd like to remind you. This is also the number of votes you can use for voting. Now the number of people who voted prior to the meeting is 183,220,310. Now, registered votes for the meeting are 88,461 votes. This gives the total represented votes, which is 183,308,771. This is 69.7%. That means that we can vote and we can make decisions.
We have the quorum. The first point of the agenda is the approval of the annual report. Andrus gave us an overview of the most important financial results, and Supervisory Board has approved and submitted the recommendation for the shareholders to approve the annual report for 2023. Before we start voting, then all of you who have the right to vote have this remote device. Using the remote device, if you're in favor, then please press number 1, which is green. If you're against, number 2, this is red. Abstention is number 3, and this is yellow. When you vote, it's enough to press this number. Then on the screen you can see sending, then you can see received. This means that the vote has been accepted by the system.
If you change your mind that as long as voting is ongoing, you can change your mind and press the button again if you feel that you did not press the correct button. On the screen, you can also see this agenda point number 1. Please vote. Approval of the annual report of 2023 as it has been submitted to the annual general meeting. Three remote devices have not been used yet. We are still waiting. If you need some assistance, please let us know. The voting is closed. We're counting the votes now. Voting for agenda item 1. Registered votes, 183,308,771. Voted, 183,303,271. Did not vote was 5,500.
In favor, 183,283,678. This is 99%. Against, 16,582 votes, this is 0.01%. Abstentions, 3,011, that's a little bit less than 0.01. This concludes the vote on the agenda item 1. Since we have to have over half in favor for the approval, therefore this agenda item has been approved. Let's move on to the second point. This is voting on agenda item 2, and before that, the CFO will introduce the dividend proposal.
The Port of Tallinn dividend policy says that the company pays at least 70% of the previous year's profit as out as dividends. We have kept this promise over the years. The EUR 30 million was the level until 2021. After that it was at least 70%. Taking into account the cash flow, financial situations, future investments. The proposal is to pay EUR 0.073 per share, which is total EUR 19.199 million. Change of the rights related to the shares is set to 9th of May, end of the working day. The last date is 9th of May 2024. As of that date, people who have purchased the shares do not have the right to earn dividends for 2023, and the payment date is 17th of May 2024.
Any questions regarding this proposal? No questions. Let us continue with the voting on agenda item 2. I'll read this proposal out, and then I'll ask you to vote. To approve the net profit of the financial year of 2023 in the amount of EUR 15,882,328 and the retained earnings, including the 2023 profit of EUR 47,323,521. As transferred to statutory capital reserve, EUR 446,084. And to pay dividends to the shareholders EUR 0.073 per share in the total of the amount of EUR 19,199,000. Please vote. Thank you. We had 183,303,271 votes. Did not vote, 5,500. In favor, 183,300,926 votes.
This is close to 100%. Against, let's say almost 100% against, 202,345 votes against, so that's a very minuscule percentage. Since we need to have over half of the votes in favor to adopt, we can now consider this agenda item adopted. Voting on the agenda item 3. I would like to invite here Erly Lüdig, the head of our legal department, who will provide this information.
This is now the agenda point 1, 3, which is the election of members of the nomination committee of AS Tallinna Sadam. Thank you. Continue with point 3, election of members of the nomination committee. We have five members, and they've been appointed for five years. Two are representative of small-scale shareholders. This is EBRD and asset management of AS SEB . European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is represented by Tomas Kairys. We have also three representatives of majority shareholders, and they are there due to their position.
I'll start from the nomination committee has five members. Two of them are representative of small-scale shareholders, which is EBRD and AS SEB Varahaldus, and three are minority majority shareholder representatives due to the position. We have Annika Uudelepp, Merike Saks from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Estonia, and Keit Kasemets from Ministry of Climate. EBRD is represented by Tomas Kairys, and SEB is represented by Gert Vilms. The proposal is to extend the powers of EBRD, AS SEB Varahaldus, representatives of minority shareholders of the nomination committee for the next five years. Any questions?
If there are no questions, please use your remote devices, and we will vote on the agenda item 3. Voting is closed. 183,300,926 votes were cast. Did not vote, 7,845. In favor, 183,285,496 votes. This is 99.9%. Against, 3,198, and 12,232 abstentions, about 0.01%. We need to have more than a half for adoption for this decision. This decision has been adopted. Let's start with the next point.
Determination of remuneration for the members of the Nomination Committee. The main task is to appoint the members of the supervisory board, and in order for them to work efficiently, we are suggesting to pay a remuneration. To the member of the nomination committee, that remuneration should be EUR 200. To the chairman, EUR 300 per meeting. Remuneration is paid by the 10th of the month following the meetings. According to the State Assets Act, the members of the nomination committee arising from the position are not remunerated for participating, and the remuneration is based on the fee which is paid to by the state remuneration committee.
Any questions? Please vote on this agenda item. The voting is closed. 183,300,953 votes. Did not vote, 7,818. In favor, 183,285,968. This is 99.99%. Against, 1,900 votes. Abstentions, 13,085, so 0.01%. We can confirm that this decision has been adopted because we had over half of the represented votes in favor. Now we'll continue with the last point of the agenda. This is the approval of the shareholder expectations. Please introduce this.
Due to the State Assets Act and articles of associations, it is in our competence to establish the expectations of the owner, which sets strategic and financial objectives. The objective is to earn stable income through the company's profitable and efficient economic activities in each selected field and finding growth opportunities. The company's adoption of sustainable development goals, in order to achieve strategic goals, taking into account the field of activity and business interest of the company and the laws applicable to the company and regulations.
In addition, implementing and promoting good governance, social responsibility, and an exemplary business culture. In addition, additional sectoral and financial objectives will be set.
Any questions? Any comments? If there is nothing to add, let's please vote agenda point 5 to approve the shareholders' expectations as they've been submitted to the general assembly. Please check your remote works. We have sending and receives. Voting is closed. We had 183,303,271 votes cast. Did not vote, 5,500. In favor, 183,296,071 votes, this is 99.99%. Against, 3,800. Abstentions, 3,400 votes. In order to adopt the decision, we have to have over half the votes in favor, then we can consider this agenda item 5 adopted.
Thank you all for coming here. Presentations and recording with the English interpretation will be available on our website, and we will be sending the stock exchange press release by 8th of May , hopefully also earlier. Today's decisions will be sent out as stock exchange press release today. If you have any additional questions or you would like to talk to our members of the management board or the chairman of the supervisory board, you can feel free to that and enjoy the rest of the event. Thank you all for coming. Thank you very much for our assistants and our staff for helping. We'll meet you again next year.