Samherji Holding, a company affiliated with Icelandic seafood company Samherji, has expanded its shareholding in Eimskipafélag Íslands hf. (Eimskip) by 3.05 percent, raising its ownership up to 30.11 percent.
According to a company statement issued by Samherji Holding, the main objective of the investment is to demonstrate its trust in Eimskip’s operations and the recent operational improvements at the company, which are yet to fully materialize.
Founded in 1914, Eimskip is the oldest shipping company in Iceland.
As required by law, Samherji will make a takeover offer to other shareholders in Eimskip within four weeks.
“Eimskip is majority-owned by Icelandic pension funds that collectively hold more than 50 percent of the share capital. It is my understanding that the board of directors and the management of Eimskip have been aligned in the recent structural and operational changes,” Samherji interim CEO Björgólfur Jóhannsson said. “Samherji Holding believes Eimskip is well-fit to continue to its listing on the Icelandic Stock Exchange. We hope that the majority of current shareholders, both large and small, share that belief with us and will continue to support the development of Eimskip in the years to come.”
Eimskip recently reported net earnings of EUR 1 million (USD 1.1 million) for the full-year 2019, compared to EUR 7.4 million (USD 8.4 million) for the previous 12 months. Annual revenues amounted to EUR 679.6 million (USD 769.8 million), a decrease of 1.4 percent or EUR 9.6 million (USD 10.9 million) when compared with 2018.
Eimskip CEO Vilhelm Mar Thorsteinsson explained that the results were affected by lower import totals to Iceland, which decreased by 10.7 percent, and that a zero-capelin season and lower catches around Iceland in the last quarter of 2019 had a “considerable impact” on export volumes from Iceland.
Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource
