Continued growth in main markets but disappointing results

EBITDA forecast for the year 2019 EUR 49 to 57 million

• Revenue EUR 689.2 million, up by EUR 25.2 million or 3.8% from 2017
  • Volume in liner services up by 4.2% and Liner revenue up by EUR 10.8 million or 2.5%
  • Volume in forwarding services up by 4.3%, forwarding revenue up by EUR 14.4 million or 6.4%, of which EUR 10.3 million came from acquisitions mid year 2017
• EBITDA EUR 49.2 million, down by EUR 8.0 million or 13.9% from 2017
  • Decrease in EBITDA margin is mainly explained by bad results in the reefer logistics in Norway, and less margin in forwarding operation in Europe and increased cost due to additional capacity on the North America route
• Net earnings EUR 7.4 million compared to EUR 16.8 million in 2017
• Equity ratio 49.1% compared to 53.2% in 2017
• Net debt ratio 2.80 compared to 1.80 in 2017, explained by lower EBITDA and investments that were mainly financed with new loans
• Net cash from operating activities EUR 29.0 million compared to EUR 37.4 in 2017
• Headcount at year end 2018 is 1821, decrease by 32 from year end 2017
• The Board proposes a dividend payment of ISK 3.50 per share, a total of ISK 653.2 and in EUR 4.8 million, that is at the higher limit of the company´s dividend policy

VILHELM THORSTEINSSON, CEO

“The company's performance was below expectations in 2018. Revenue increased somewhat in our liner and forwarding services but decreasing contribution margins, higher costs and depreciation affected the group‘s results between years. We experienced a slight increase in revenue in the fourth quarter, when compared with the fourth quarter in the previous year, but the overall results for the fourth quarter show losses which can partly be attributed to irregular items.

The reduction in operating results between years can be attributed to specific factors. Liner services to and from Iceland and the Faroe Islands and associated operations in those countries have been successful but revenue from our reefer logistics services and operations in Norway was below expectations and forwarding services in Europe also experienced a downturn this year. We subsequently made changes to our operations in Norway by decommissioning two of our vessels, the latter in January this year.  Achieving the necessary increase in volume on the third vessel in the North American line took more time than we expected and directly affected our annual revenue. However, we have seen an increase in volume in our Trans-Atlantic services in the last few months. Various uncertainty factors in the Icelandic economy, such as ongoing labour collective agreement negotiations, affected the fourth quarter. Import growth has slowed and certain commodities have decreased. 

Considerable changes were made to the company's structure at the beginning of the year 2019 with the aim of improving operations and increasing long-term profits. We review the company‘s sailing system on a regular basis to identify market developments, customer needs and to improve efficiency. We place an emphasis on integrating processes between units in all of the company's operations and increase autmation in order to achieve more efficiency.

Eimskip is entering a period of transition. Two new vessels that are currently being built in China,  at size of 2.150 TEUS each, will join our fleet in the latter part of 2019 and are a part of our potential future collaboration with Royal Arctic Line. We have experienced extensive external growth in the last few years and it is now a common objective for the strong team of Eimskip´s employees to further build on that foundation with a clear vision and sharpening the focus to exceed expectations in operations and to deliver maximum results.”

Further information

• Vilhelm Thorsteinsson, President and CEO, tel.:
• Egill Örn Petersen, CFO,  tel.:
• Árni Sigurðsson, Senior Manager, tel.: , email:

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