Hanstholm Port :
The problem port became municipal after years of chaos, but the problems began much earlier

2022 should have been the big turnaround year for the self-governing port of Hanstholm, which was completed after an expansion to 650 million DKK. Today, a year and a half later, the port has once again become municipal with a public debt of 630 million DKK and uncertain future prospects marked by structural challenges, managerial chaos and political interference.

Last year, plans were ready for an energy cluster at the port, and the preliminary agreement with the energy development company European Energy had just been signed. Wind turbines and PtX with methanol production were to replace the declining and hard-hit Brexit fishing.

Apart from a single freight route to Norway, fishing has been the only business in the Port of Hanstholm. And it continues to be so. The port's strength has at the same time become a weakness with major consequences. Fishing has no prospect of golden times for the port, even though Europe's largest fish auction is located here. Owner and auctioneer Jesper Kongsted has a well-run business, but the fish are moving north.

- Three years ago I set it up so that we land the fish in Norway and have it driven the 2300 km to Hanstholm. Today, 40 percent of our fish comes from Norway that way, explains Jesper Kongsted and adds:

- In two years, I expect that 50 percent of our fish will come here from Norway by truck.

But when the fish is driven through Norway, sailed to Hirtshals and driven the last distance again, it is a problem for the Port of Hanstholm. The fish must go over the quayside, otherwise the port does not make money.

That is why the port has a turnover that in recent years has fluctuated between 30-33 million. DKK - not enough to repay a debt of 630 million. DKK or create a profit. In 2021, this resulted in an operating deficit of 17 million. DKK. But at the turn of the year between 2021 and 2022, it was not yet known – because there was slight optimism about the plans for an energy cluster.

Business Development Director

At that time, the port's director was named Nils Skeby, and he had come to the port in August 2020 to kick-start business development. Nils Skeby was able to both put the agreement with European Energy on its feet and establish a port council, where some of the port's largest companies are represented.

But Nils Skeby was in a vulnerable position, and one of the port council members already feared for the director's future in the autumn of 2021.

- We must hold on to the port's director. We have had six different port directors in eight years. It is completely impossible to deal with as an independent. It brings some processes to a standstill when there are changes in management, says the second-generation owner-manager of Hanstholm Skibssmedie Jesper Pedersen.

History speaks for itself. Hanstholm Port had seven changes in the directorship between 2014 and 2022.

In 2014, the then director Birgitte Juhl Svendson was fired after a case involving consultancy work for the then chairman of the port's board. Since then, the retired technical director from Thisted Municipality, Torben Juul-Olsen, has been acting director twice. The second time was when Henrik Carstensen moved to the same position at Grenaa Port. Several centrally located sources also confirm that one of the others in the position, Niels Clemmensen, was fired, even though the official explanation was different. A document review of the port's 2021 audit report shows that Niels Clemensen received a severance pay paid until July 2021.

- It is with great regret that I have received Niels Clemensen's resignation, the port's then chairman of the board Martin Vestergaard told several media outlets in late summer 2020.

The forgotten chairman

But the position of chairman of the port's board has also changed hands so many times that the port's head of administration Martin Bjerre, in an overview in connection with a document review, forgets one of them, Flemming Ipsen. The former Maersk CEO is, however, remembered by other sources at the port because he arrived at the board meetings in a Rolls Royce.

Ipsen replaced Martin Vestergaard, who resigned from his position in June 2016 because he wanted to devote himself to his job as an engineer, but already in September he returned to the position of chairman of the port.

The overview of board chairmen over the past ten years shows that the position of chairman has changed hands seven times. Three of these in 2022.

Municipal elections and new port board

Local politicians have also influenced the port's operations and management. After KV21, the incumbent mayor Ulla Vestergaard (S) had to hand over the chain to her deputy mayor Niels Jørgen Pedersen (V), who secured support from the conservatives on election night.

This also meant that the port got a new board in Hanstholm Port, where the former Liberal politician, Minister of Taxation, Finance and Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen became chairman of the board in Hanstholm Port.

The well-known Liberal man aroused enthusiasm in Hanstholm, and auction owner Jesper Kongsted still remembers it.

- Kristian Jensen, Thy Mors Energi, European Energy and Nils Skeby brought the city down, says Jesper Kongsted about the plans that involved an energy cluster with wind turbines and PtX production of green methanol.

Kristian Jensen fires director during exit

The enthusiasm did not last long, because after a few weeks Jensen moved to the top position as CEO of Green Power Denmark. On his way out the door, he recommended director Nils Skeby for dismissal to the city council's finance committee due to "difficulties in cooperation."

The magazine learns that the dismissal to the finance committee was, among other things, justified by deputy director and operations manager Søren Zohnesen's stress-related sick leave. According to several sources, the sick leave coincided remarkably with the recommendation for dismissal, so that it appeared to several sources as an orchestrated argument for the dismissal.

Søren Zohnesen was not only employed at the port. Between 2018 and until KV21, he sat on the city council for the Liberal Party, where he was not re-elected. During that period, the former harbor assistant advanced from deputy director and operations manager in December 2020 despite limited experience as a fishing skipper and no education beyond the elementary school leaving exam.

After the dismissal of Nils Skeby, Søren Zohnesen was appointed as harbor director in May 2022 after having been deputy director and operations manager for less than a year and a half. When the harbor became municipal on January 1, he was appointed permanent harbor manager without the municipality's finance committee. One of the committee's Social Democratic members was surprised by the appointment.

- We read in the newspaper that Søren Zohnesen had been hired as harbor manager, says long-time city council member Peter Skriver Nielsen (S).

The appointment brought former parliamentary politician and locally rooted leftist Svend Heiselberg to the scene.

- I can't say anything bad about Søren Zohnesen, who is also a leftist. But the question is whether he is the right person for the job, assessed Svend Heiselberg (V).

New chairman of the board with port experience

After Kirsten Hede, Kristian Jensen took office in March 2022, but he had barely entered the door of the boardroom before he announced his resignation to become director of Green Power Denmark. Michael Svane then took office as chairman of the board of the port in May 2022. The former industry director of DI Transport knew the port world from the inside

- It has been known for many years that Hanstholm has been a problem port, among other things due to a large turnover in the port's management. This kind of thing creates unrest, and it's not good for a port, said Michael Svane in January 2023.

Even though he spent one to two days a week in Hanstholm, he did not succeed in turning around the poor economy.

- I ended up recommending that the municipality take the port back. The basis for the decision was, among other things, that they were looking at a negative liquidity in the period 2021 to 2044, says Svane.

When the port's path into municipal governance was decided in November last year, Mayor Niels Jørgen Pedersen (V) said:

- We in the municipal council have a strong focus on having stronger management of Hanstholm Port. This also means that we are investigating whether there are conditions in the financial management of the port that can form the basis for claiming liability.

At the same time, Thisted Municipality stated in a news release on its website:

"In addition, conditions have been identified that may give rise to liability."

However, Niels Jørgen Pedersen has had insight into the port's financial problems much earlier. The mayor sat on the finance committee in 2019, when the alarm bells rang in June. This is evident from a risk assessment from a leading expert in the port area in the banking world, Danske Bank's managing director Morten Søegård. The assessment was submitted to both the port's board and Thisted Municipality. And thus also to the finance committee.

In the risk assessment, of which DOI.dk knows key parts, Danske Bank calls the expansion of Hanstholm Port a "high-risk project". Later in the email sent to then-port director Niels Clemensen, it is stated that the port expansion could be “a threat to the municipality’s economy”.

Former mayor Ulla Vestergaard could not remember the risk assessment when we contacted her last month.

- It’s not that I don’t want to speak out, but I can’t remember it at all. But now we have taken over the port in the municipality. A budget has been set, and it is a port that has had a down period. I am sure it will be a growth engine for the entire municipality, says Ulla Vestergaard.

Subsequently, Mayor Niels Jørgen Pedersen also stated the following to Nordjyske about the “high-risk assessment” from Danske Bank:

“There was probably no doubt that it was. Not even in the municipal council.”

Several municipal politicians involved

But the mayor was not the only politician with prior knowledge of the port’s financial challenges. Before the port became municipal, Deputy Mayor Jens Kr. Yde (K) also sat on the board.

A document review of Hanstholm Port’s audit reports shows that it was RSM Revision in Thisted that was responsible for the audit. Here, Jens Kr. Yde partner and CEO before becoming a member of the port's board and deputy mayor.

The state-authorized public accountant who audited Hanstholm Port during the document access period from 2015 to 2022 is Lennart Mouritzen. He cannot comment on the audit report, but confirms that Jens Kr. Yde was partner and CEO of RSM Revision and a city council member at the same time.

- It's been many years, and it's no secret, says Lennart Mouritzen, who himself lives in Hanstholm.

The publicly available CVR. information shows that it was not until December 28, 2021, that Jens Kristian Yde stopped working as CEO of RSM Revision. That's almost a year and five months ago today. Jens Kristian Yde confirms that he was on the board and management of the auditing firm until the aforementioned time, but he resigned from the partnership seven years ago. He also had no knowledge of the content of the audit reports.

- I have had nothing to do with the audit at all. I have been completely outside the door with the audit, and I have had no financial interest in it, says Jens Kristian Yde, who also well remembers Mayor Niels Jørgen Pedersen's words about responsibility-inducing circumstances.

- I think it may have something to do with outgoing chairmen. But it must be at Niels Jørgen's expense.

However, a city council member believes that it is not entirely known that Jens Kr. Yde has been on the board of the port's auditing firm.

- It is a well-known secret that one should not talk about, says Social Democrat Peter Skriver Nielsen, one of very few politicians who asks questions about the process surrounding Hanstholm Port in the Finance Committee.

None of the auditor's reports mention any circumstances that could lead to liability.

The politician who was fired from his civil servant position in the port

But there is more than one city council politician who has had a professional connection to the port at the same time as his political activities. Ib Poulsen (O) was employed as a port officer in Hanstholm Port all the way back when the port was state-owned. The Maersk-trained shipmaster got his job as a harbor officer in 1990 and the following year it became a civil servant position.

The politician also ended up sitting in the Danish Parliament twice between 2007-2011 and again between 2015-2019, where he was his party's fisheries spokesman. He has also been a member of the Thisted city council since 2001, where he has been a member of the municipality's important economic committee ever since. But when he was supposed to return to his job as a harbor officer after the second round in the Danish Parliament, something happened.

- They thought there had been some structural changes, and it was only me who couldn't handle the changes, says Ib Poulsen, who was fired from his civil servant position.

It was a very expensive dismissal for the port.

- I was given a notice period of three years and three months. I will receive a salary until September 2024 and then my civil servant pension, explains Ib Poulsen.

Well-placed sources say in agreement and without knowledge of each other's statements that the current port manager Søren Zohnesen worked very hard to ensure that Ib Poulsen would not return to his position after his leave. The sources also report that Søren Zohnesen openly stated that he did not want Ib Poulsen back to work at the port.

Søren Zohnesen did not want to comment on the personnel matter in April 2022.

The port has become municipal, and this leaves Thisted Municipality with a hefty bill of 530 million DKK - the loan has been granted a grace period for five years, so the port should make money in five years at the latest. But as the port's last chairman said in January 2023, it requires more investment.

- Several people have asked me: 'How could you do that?' I could, because there is a very large potential in Hanstholm Port. It still is. But it requires investment, and when the eternal unrest stops, there is a golden future. The port can then either become a self-governing port or a limited company again later, says Michael Svane.

DOI.dk has tried in vain to get a comment from Mayor Niels Jørgen Pedersen and Port Manager Søren Zohnesen on the content of this article.

This article is based on extensive research, access to documents and interviews that began at the end of 2021. Several interviews have been given under the promise of anonymity to the sources. The article also contains parts of articles previously published on DOI.dk.