RÚV confuses turnover with profits – the seizure of the vessel Heinaste lifted
The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV) confused the terms profit and turnover in recent news coverage about the seizure of assets of companies affiliated with Samherji in Namibia. The seizure of the most valuable asset, the trawler Heinaste, has now been lifted and the trawler has been sold to the Namibian fishing company Tunacor Fisheries.
In recent months, efforts have been made to complete closure of operations by Samherji-affiliated companies in Namibia. This has been done in close consultation with the Namibian authorities. Part of the work involved the seizure of the trawler Heinaste. The seizure has now been lifted after The Prosecutor-General of Namibia signed a letter to that effect yesterday, which meant the sale of the ship could be finalized. Other insignificant assets in Namibia are still under seizure, but issues related to that will be resolved in the coming months in close consultation with the authorities.
After companies affiliated with Samherji ceased operations in Namibia at the end of last year, efforts have been made to sell Heinaste or lease the vessel on to Namibian parties to protect jobs. With the sale of the ship being finalized, it will be possible to restore employment of about one hundred crew members who were part of its crew before the ship was seized, but the vessel has been moored at the harbour in Walvis Bay for the past year. The necessary overhaul of Heinaste's equipment is now complete, and the vessel will head out to sea tomorrow in the service of a new owner with a crew that is mostly the same as before. The buyer of the ship has renamed it Tutungeni.
The seller of the trawler is the company Heinaste Investment Namibia, in which a company affiliated with Samherji owns more than half of the shares. The buyer, Tunacor Fisheries, is a Namibian fishing company with more than 60 years of operating history. The company currently operates fifteen vessels and employs more than 2,100 people in Namibia.
As previously mentioned, the vessel was among assets under seizure in Namibia. In recent days, The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV) has published stories based on a document that was submitted in support of the seizure. In a report published the day before yesterday, it was wrongly claimed that companies affiliated with Samherji in Namibia had received the equivalent of ISK 4.7 billion in "illegal profits" from a catching agreement with the company Namgomar Namibia. The news report gave a very distorted picture of this agreement and the operations in Namibia.
The story incorrectly stated the scope of fisheries based on the agreement and the income resulting from it. It was not mentioned that the specified amount is the estimated gross income before taxes and fees have been deducted. RÚV stated that the estimated gross income from the agreement over a five-year period was the "illegal profit", but did not mention taxes and fees, salaries and other operating expenses during the period. This use of the term "illegal profit" is absurd, as the word "profit" generally means operating profit.
In relation to this, it may be recalled that companies affiliated with Samherji paid the equivalent of ISK 6.5 billion in total to the Namibian Treasury during the years they were in operation. In addition, the companies paid a total of ISK 12 billion for the quotas, and a significant part of that amount was paid to state-owned companies and institutions.
It was also not mentioned in RÚV's story that during their years of operation, the companies in Namibia were in aggregate loss-making. Net loss for the period 2012-2018, taking into account depreciation, financial expenses, income tax etc., amounted to ISK 950 million, as was reported earlier this year when the companies' consolidated financial statements were available. This simple fact would, of course, have entirely changed the substantive content of RÚV's report on the "illegal profit".
"We at Samherji are very pleased that the uncertainty about Heinaste's future has been eliminated with the seizure lifted and the sale of the vessel. With the sale now finalized, it will be possible to protect jobs of crewmembers who were in the ship's crew before it was seized, which is pleasing. The sale of Heinaste is a final step in ceasing operations in Namibia. This is a powerful ship that has been successfully used by companies affiliated with Samherji over the years. We expect it to remain prosperous and vibrant in the service of a new owner. However, it is both sad and ridiculous that the ship's seizure is lifted and the vessel is sold at the same time as RÚV distorts reality in news coverage of this same seizure. It underlines once again that it is impossible for RÚV to cover issues related to Samherji in an objective and honest manner and to report the facts correctly," says Þorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, CEO of Samherji.
For further information, contact:
Margrét Ólafsdóttir
