Akranes, Iceland-based Skaginn 3X has been purchased out of bankruptcy by KAPP Skaginn, a newly-formed investment company majority-owned Icelandic technology company KAPP.
Skaginn 3X filed for insolvency in July 2024, just over one year after Germany-headquartered seafood-processing equipment manufacturer BAADER purchased the company outright. At the time BAADER, which first acquired a majority stake in Skaginn 3X in 2020, said it was unable to secure a financial path forward for what had become one of its subsidiaries.
“In the face of growing economic challenges, including high interest rates and inflationary pressures, Skaginn 3X has endeavored to restructure its operations and secure new investments,” BAADER said at the time. “Despite the positive outcomes from strategic consolidations in Akranes and Reykjavík and extensive negotiations with financing partners, external investors, and other stakeholders, a viable financial arrangement could not be finalized.”
KAPP CEO Freyr Friðriksson, who is also serving as the chair of KAPP Skaginn, said it plans to maintain Skaginn 3X as a going concern. KAPP is specializes in refrigeration services, production, sales, and service of equipment with a focus on the seafood industry.
“Not only are jobs being secured in Akranes, but our expectations are that there will be profitable activities that in the long term can become the company's center of knowledge and development for, among other things, the fishing industry in Iceland,” Friðriksson said.
Skaginn 3X was founded in 2017 and provided equipment for a number of big-name seafood customers, including Mowi, which installed Skaginn 3X’s Sub-Chilling system at its Herøy plant. The company was directly impacted by the loss of its business in Russia which was made difficult after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent international sanctions against the country. Prior to the issues, Skaginn 3X was a main provider of equipment for some of Russia’s new supertrawlers which were slated to be built under the country’s investment quotas program.
When BAADER first announced the bankruptcy, it said the ...
