Norway’s Hurtigruten has unveiled a record result for 2019 amid its shift away from its coastal ferry specialism.
Hurtigruten logged a pretax profit of NOK 473m ($51.4m) against a NOK 50m profit in 2018. Revenue increased from NOK 5.43bn to NOK 5.99bn last year.
The strong profit for last year came as Hurtigruten, which has traditionally concentrated on the coastal service between Bergen and Kirkenes in Norway, has changed its business in fundamental ways.
Last year it took delivery of two hybrid cruiseships for operation in Arctic waters.
The 20,900-gt Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen (both built 2019) were both delivered from Norway’s Kleven shipyard.
The shipyard suffered huge losses on building the two ships and has said it could not have completed them without help from Hurtigruten.
These ships added to other vessels serving Hurtigruten’s growing expedition cruise division.
The company said in its report that demand for this product is growing.
Meanwhile, Hurtigruten said the coronavirus does not appear to be affecting the coastal ferry and expedition cruiseship owner so far.
The British investment fund TDR Capital holds 81.1% of Hurtigruten's shares, investor Petter A Stordalen controls 11.6% and Trygve Hegnar has a 4.9% stake. Earlier plans of re-listing the company on the Oslo Stock Exchange are put on ice for now.
