Norway's Glastad family saw the book equity of its holding company rise substantially after a profitable year.
The diversified company, which has roots in the shipping industry dating back to the early part of the 19th century, reported book equity of NOK 2.26bn ($250m) at the end of 2019, up from NOK 1.98bn a year earlier.
The result for 2019, which has just been made publicly available, shows Glastad Holding had a pre-tax profit of NOK 278m, an improvement on the NOK 233m reported for 2018.
Farsund-based Glastad is headed by Endre Glastad, who holds a majority of its shares.
The holding company has four subsidiaries, with one of its legs is still in shipping. Glastad owns Mosvolds Rederi and as well as a 75% stake in Njord Shipping, where Endre Glastad is chairman.
Njord is primarily a bulker owner with a portfolio of 12 handysizes that were all built after 2010.
Optimistic
Henrik Ness, chief executive at Njord, is optimistic about the bulker market going forward.
“We have seen a shift in the market only in the last two weeks,” he said.
The company operates its bulkers in the spot market when rates are low and tends to fix them out for up to nine months when earnings improve.
Mosvolds Rederi and Njord operate independently of each other. The latter is perceived more of an opportunistic player.
Njord also has five tankers, where the biggest is the 68,000-dwt Danubia (built 2004). All the tankers are covered by period charters.
Endre Glastad’s father, Tarald, was a partner of shipowner Terje Mikalsen for many years, but the two split in 1999.
Endre took over the family company in 2004 as a fourth-generation shipowner. He earned a salary of NOK 1.7m last year.
