Carrier announces big restructuring
Eimskip, one of two major seaborne carriers taking fish from Iceland to Britain and Europe, has announced a major financial shake-up to pull the company around. Eimskip has been struggling over the past year, hit by Iceland’s financial collapse and some failed acquisitions. Just two weeks ago it announced a second quarter loss of around C$480 million, making the need for a shake up all the more urgent.
The company said the objective of the reorganisation was to maximise the returns to creditors, ensure the continuation of the Icelandic and North Atlantic operations and maintain around 1,500 jobs. An initial step in the re-organisation was to safeguard the Icelandic business by transferring certain operations to Eimskip Island ehf, a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company. It is also getting out of its global cold storage business and reducing fleet capacity by selling three ships to Norway. It also invited the UK investment group Yucapia to take a financial stake in the business.
Eimskip stressed that the day-to-day operations of its core North Atlantic container shipping and refrigerated logistics (including fish) and payments to trade suppliers will be unaffected.
Eimskip president and chief executive Gylfi Sigfusson, said the main goal will be continue to provide service in Iceland, the North Atlantic, the Faroe Islands and Norway.
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