Norway's Hurtigruten Group could be about to raise funds from selling property interests as its cruiseships remain in port due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company owns and operates three hotels, shops, several apartments and a significant activity and excursion business on the Arctic island of Svalbard.
Hurtigruten said it had been approached by "several external parties" to sell the assets and has now decided to start a process to consider its options.
"The company will engage with interested parties in Norway and internationally and review various options for partnerships," the company said.
The group's long-term strategic commitment to a land-based Svalbard operation through its subsidiary Hurtigruten Svalbard will not change, Hurtigruten added.
Carnegie has been brought in as a financial advisor.
Hurtigruten has suffered a difficult year due its ships being idled in spring during the first wave of Covid-19.
Police probe
Some cruises were then restarted in the summer, only for a July outbreak on the 21,800-gt expedition vessel Roald Amundsen (built 2019) to end operations until 2021.
The company then landed in hot water with authorities over breaches of Covid-19 protocol on the vessel.
Police have launched an investigation and have questioned 20 people.
The scandal has already been described as one of the biggest in Norwegian corporate history by a critical domestic media.
An external investigation, contracted by Hurtigruten and carried out by classification society DNV GL and law firm Wiersholm, showed that the shipowner's risk management process had been insufficient, that suspicion of infection during voyages was not followed up, and that tests were too slow in being carried out.
The owner is only running two coastal ferries currently.
