Ingar Skiaker stood down this week as chief executive of car carrier owner Hoegh Autoliners as it admitted to mistakes over price fixing in the US.

But chairman Leif O Hoegh stresses to TradeWinds in an exclusive interview that Skiaker was not forced out of the job.

“Ingar and we came to an agreement and he is leaving the job in an orderly manner. He leaves the position with our respect,” Hoegh said.

Skiaker, who was chief executive for six years, is departing after the company agreed a settlement with US Department of Justice (DOJ) following a five-year investigation into price fixing that involved Hoegh Autoliners paying a $21m fine.

“This is a huge sum and we deeply regret the mistakes that have been made by the company,” Hoegh said.

Hoegh Autoliners also faces legal action from US car makers, the European Union, South Africa and Brazil, but TradeWinds understands these are considered more as formalities.

Skiaker is to become director of Leif Hoegh & Co, the Hoegh family’s holding company.

Ivar H Myklebust has been promoted to chief executive from the chief financial officer post he has held since 2014.

Myklebust has a background with Nordea, Norden, Awilhelmsen and Pareto Securities, and Hoegh says the 50-year-old has done “an excellent job as a commercial-minded CFO”.

Hoegh Autoliners has been through a couple of challenging years, making a pre-tax loss of $223.5m last year when it reported $182m of impairments in 2016. Hoegh expects this year to be a bit better. He said: “The market has turned, but it takes some time for it to yield better results.”

The company has postponed repaying banks and shareholders have injected more equity.

“We have shareholders willing to support the company. We have very good relations with our banks and I guess we are considered one of the easier of their clients,” Hoegh said.

Hoegh Autoliners is owned privately, with Leif Hoegh & Co holding 61.25% and AP Moller-Maersk the rest. The Danish group acquired its stake in 2008 but there has been speculation that Maersk would sell out, as it has no history of being a minority shareholder in a non-listed company.

Hoegh praises the cooperation with Maersk: “It is totally unproblematic and very useful for us. They have always put top people into board positions.”