FREDERIKSHAVN: Frederikshavn Municipality is taking over full responsibility for Frederikshavn Port after the port ran into financial difficulties. This was announced by Mayor Birgit S. Hansen (S) at a press conference on Wednesday, DR reports.
- Frederikshavn Port is becoming a municipal port. It will do so from May 15, because there is no liquidity to continue from there, the mayor says.
The port has long struggled with its finances. There is a debt of 1.6 billion kroner, and in the coming years there is a prospect of a liquidity shortage of 120 million kroner.
This is what the port's chairman Karsten Dybvad says, according to DR. Such problems mean that he can no longer continue to run the port as an independent entity.
From self-government to municipal
The Port of Frederikshavn has so far been a so-called municipal self-government port. When the port in that case loses its ability to pay its bills, "the keys land at the city hall", says Mayor Birgit S. Hansen.
On Tuesday, the mayor announced that a legal investigation would be launched into the port's operations to see whether the inadequate financial management could lead to liability. The municipality has continuously lent the port more money to get its finances under control.
A joint city council is behind the decision to conduct a legal investigation.
- It will free up some energy so that we can make the right decisions. I actually don't think we can move forward until we have an answer to why it has gone so wrong, Birgit Hansen told TV2 Nord on Monday.
The city council expects the lawyer investigation to be ready before the New Year, and the municipality will allocate 1.5 million kroner to carry it out.
According to TV 2 Nord, the municipality has provided loan guarantees for 241 million kroner in the past six months. In the autumn, the port's board resigned after disagreements over the port's strategy.
A new board was subsequently appointed, with Karsten Dybvad, known as a former head of department in the Prime Minister's Office and CEO of the Confederation of Danish Industry, as chairman.
After the new board worked its way into the cases, the impression of the port's problems grew, DR has described. The economy was worse than expected, and this will now have the ultimate consequence for the port.
/ritzau/
Ed. Sections 7-9 added Thursday at 7.18
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