News

Earlier this month, Samherji hired the law firm Wikborg Rein in Norway to assist in investigating the allegations made against the company because of its operations in Namibia. Priority was given to reviewing payments to the company Cape Cod FS.

Stundin and RÚV have stated that Samherji owned the company Cape Cod FS and that JPC Shipmanagement, which provided services to Samherji’s companies, “held” the ownership of Cape Cod FS for Samherji. This is wrong, and there is nothing in Wikborg Rein's investigation that indicates otherwise. Samherji does not own and has never owned Cape Cod FS and has never assigned others to “hold” the ownership of the company.

Cape Cod FS was owned by JPC Shipmanagement, which provided companies affiliated with Samherji with crewing of vessels in the group's operations. Purchasing the services of such companies is well known in international shipping operations.

Both Stundin and RÚV have incorrectly stated that about 70 million dollars was paid to Cape Cod FS because of operations in Namibia. The fact is that 28,9 million dollars was paid to the company in relation to operations in Namibia.

It has been stated in the Icelandic media that the payments to Cape Cod FS are unexplained and abnormal. This is wrong. Namibia has capital controls. In order to make payments out of the Namibian economy various documents are required to verify the payment due to the controls. For this reason, information on payments to each crew member along with a copy of his passport has to be sent to the bank that handles the transactions, which forwards the information to The Bank of Namibia. In order to ensure that all crew members were paid in accordance with their contract, the payments were reviewed by both Cape Cod FS and an employee of a company affiliated with Samherji before the transactions were made.

The amounts that were paid to Cape Cod FS were reviewed. The investigation suggests that the payments were in line with market fees at the time. It was an extensive operation and therefore the amounts paid to the company were not unreasonable due to salaries paid to crew members over a long period of time.

 "The allegations made about the ownership of Cape Cod and the payments made to the company are wrong. The investigation will continue and the relevant authorities will be provided with all findings,” says Björgólfur Jóhannsson, the interim CEO of Samherji. It is expected that Stundin, RÚV and others will correct wrong news reports that have been published about Cape Cod FS. 

Photos taken when Björgólfur Jóhannsson takes over as CEO of Samherji and Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson steps aside for the time being

The new trawler Hardbakur EA 3 arrived in hometown Akureyri on November 9th.

Fish Festival in Dalvík "The Great Fish day" is an annual festival in Dalvíkurbyggð held on the second Saturday of August. Photos by Bjarni Eiriksson.

The CEO and the Board of Directors of Samherji have agreed that the CEO Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson will step aside for the time being until the pending internal investigation into the company’s subsidiaries’ alleged wrongdoing in Namibia has revealed the key material facts of the matter.

During that period, Björgólfur Jóhannsson will function as acting CEO of Samherji effective immediately. Jóhannsson has been the CEO & President of Icelandair Group, Chair of Fisheries Iceland (SFF), Chair of The Icelandic Employers Association (SA) and CEO of the seafood company Icelandic Group. He will focus on meeting the employees and key stakeholders in the coming days.

Samherji would like to make the following statement after coverage about our operations in Namibia in a newscast broadcasted tonight by The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.
"We were very disappointed to learn that Jóhannes Stefánsson, a former managing director of Samherji's operations in Namibia, appears to have been involved in questionable business practices and possibly entangled Samherji in activities that may be illegal," says Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, CEO of Samherji.

Press release
It has recently been brought to our attention that a former executive of a subsidiary of the company in Namibia, Jóhannes Stefánsson, has spoken to the media and made serious allegations against Samherji's executives, both current and former. We take this very seriously and have engaged the international law firm Wikborg Rein based in Norway to assist us in thorough investigation of our operations in Africa. Until the investigation has been concluded we will not comment on specific allegations.

We have especially requested to have background discussions with reporters from the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, RÚV, to provide information that we believe is relevant to the proposed coverage. Our request has been rejected by the editor because the reporters are only willing to talk with us in front of a camera.

At the opening of the Brussels Seafood Show this morning Ice Fresh Seafood opened the new web page www.icefresh.is. This web page is first and foremost an introduction to Samherji´s world of Seafood.
Samherji exibits at the Brussels Seafood show as in previous years. The Samherji stand has been buzzing on this first day of the exhibition where guests are welcomed by the staff of Samherji and Ice Fresh Seafood.

Óskar Aevarsson has decided to step down as Fleet Manager of Samherji´s EU Fleet operations. Óskar Aevarsson has cooperated with the Samherji cousins Thorsteinn Már and Kristján for over 30 years. They first met in Slippurinn in Njardvik and in May 1989 Óskar started working for Samherji as Chief Engineer on board Hjalteyrin EA310. He worked as Chief Engineer on board various Samherji vessels until 1997 when he started working in Grindavik. Óskar took charge over the operations of the company Fiskimjöl & Lysi in Grindavík, which was then owned by Samherji but later, and while Óskar was in charge of the operations, merged with Samherji. In 2006 Óskar moved with his family to Cuxhaven in Germany, where he became Manager of Samherji´s EU fleet operations.

Samherji Ísland ehf. has received an equal pay certification confirming that the company meets the requirements of the Equal Pay Standard ÍST: 85 2012 and the requirements of Act no. 10/2008 on equal status and equal rights for women and men.
BSI á Íslandi ehf., an accredited certification service provider, assessed the company's equal pay scheme in December and January. The certification confirms that Samherji's management system functions as intended, that the system ensures that payroll procedures and decisions are based on objective considerations and exclude gender-based discrimination.