Facts about Smyril were incorrect

An article in last week's The Shetland Times claimed that Faroese ferry company Smyril Line has debts of over £135 million.

This figure was incorrect, the true debt position of the company at the end of December 2005 being £51.5m.

This week Smyril Line sales and marketing director Hendrik Egholm said the company had sufficient assets, mainly in the £68m value of the Norröna ferry, to cover the company's debts.

He also said that the company's debts were being fully serviced in line with loan agreements in place.

In addition the company has no loan of £45m repayable over the next five years, as reported last week.

The article also claimed that, because Smyril Line had sold cargo capacity for the next 10 years to Esbjerg-based freight company Smyril Blue Water, Smyril Line itself would not benefit if there was more demand for cargo in the future.

This was incorrect and Smyril Line will benefit financially from any increase in cargo over the next 10 years.

Mr Egholm added that Smyril Line's sailing schedule for next year offered a wide range of opportunities for visitors to come to Shetland.

For example, visitors from Faroe or Iceland could come for a weekend holiday or for nine days.

Mr Egholm said: "In the summer for instance Norwegians can take 10 nights in Shetland and two on the Faroes or five days in Shetland including some days in the Faroes.

"The same goes for the Europeans. Therefore, I do not think that the current sailing schedule is much worse than the one in 2007, not for incoming visitors at least."

The article also claimed that Shetland Development Trust trustee Drew Ratter had proposed investing a further £700,000 in Smyril Line as part of a deal to secure Shetland's ferry connections to Faroe and Denmark next summer.

Mr Ratter's actual motion was that the trust should write to the SIC stating that the trust was willing to carry on managing the SIC's investment in Smyril Line.

We apologise to Smyril Line for the errors and to our readers for misleading them.

There are currently no special offers available.