News

Samherji´s daughter company Onward Fishing Company Ltd.  in Scotland and the Dutch company Parlevliet Van der Plas B.V. have decided to take up discussions with Kaldbakur to purchase all shares in the fishing company Boyd Line Management Services Ltd., which is registered in Hull, England.  The ownership of Boyd Line will after the purchase, be divided equally between Parlevliet Van der Plas and Onward Fishing Co.

Three Norwegian tramp steamers hired by Samherji hf., have in the last few days collected products from  Samherji and other collaborating companies, in harbours in the Northern and Eastern part of Iceland for export. The quantity totals just over 8.500 tons of frozen products; almost entirely capelin products. The fourth tramp steamer shipped a few days ago about 2.400 tons of capelin products from Iceland so in a short time this transport totals almost 11.000 tons.

Samherji hf and Framherji aps. have bought 42% share in the cold store Bergfrost in Fuglafjordur in the Faroe Islands. The cold storage is in three tunnels, which have been blasted out of the mountain.  Total size of the three tunnels is 50 thousand cubic, which take up to 13 thousand tons of frozen products on pallets.  Bergfrost´s management is more economic than regular cold stores since it takes less energy to sustain frost inside the mountain.  A building of 700 square meters is under construction on the premises for sorting and  registering products.

Baldvin Þorsteinsson EA-10, Samherji´s multi purpose vessel., left Riga in Latvia last sunday night and had just passed the Faeroe Islands this morning, on it´s way home. The ship is expected to be in Akureyri on Saturday.

Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his wife Mrs. Dorrit Moussaieff  visited Samherji today.  The reason for the visit was the granting of The Presidents of Iceland´s award to Samherji, last spring.  Along with the President and his wife were members of the award´s dispensation commitee and reprentatives of the Trade Council of Iceland.  The guests were well greeted by Þorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, Director of Samherji, Kristján Vilhelmsson, Managing Director of ships operations and almost 200 other empoyees of Samherji. 

The operations of  Samherji hf. were profitable by 622 million ISK the first nine months of the year 2003.

So far this year, Samherji´s export in tramp steamers has been twelve thousand tons of frozen products, both white fish and pelagic fish. The products have been transported from Iceland to various harbours in Europe. One of these ships, Green Snow, which takes about 1.850 tons fully loaded, is now in Neskaupstaður and the aim is to finish loading the ship tonight. Green Snow has previously docked in Grindavík, where 425 tons were loaded and in Reyðarfjörður, where barely 300 tons were loaded on board. The majority of the cargo is herring fillets, but also some white fish products.

Samherji hf. has used the clause in the Bill of sale, of the freezer trawler Akraberg, which allowes the ship to be returned.  The ship has already been returned to it´s former owners Framherji Spf. after one fishing trip for Samherji hf., fishing Ocean Perch.

An agreement has been made to sell the multiple fishing vessel Þorsteinn EA to Hraðfrystistöð Þórshafnar hf. Included is 1,25% share in the quota of Capelin, 2% share Blue Whiting quota and 1,1% share in Icelandic Herring quota. The selling price is 1.360 million ISK and the sale is of no profit or loss to Samherji hf. The ship will be delivered to the new owners November 30th.

The operations of Samherji hf. were profitable by 603 million ISK the first six months of the year 2003. Profit before depreciation and financial expenses (EBITDA) was 1.201 million ISK which is 19,2% of the revenue. Net cash provided by operating activities was 834 million ISK.