Iceland Seafood's booth at the Barcelona Seafood Expo 2025.
Photo: Iceland Seafood International.
Confirming its operational recovery, which began last year, Iceland Seafood International (ISI) closed Q1 2025 with positive results, and announcing that the Group's refinancing process was nearing completion. Now, the company has confirmed that it has successfully completed that refinancing.
The Icelandic company said that the closing of this transaction significantly strengthens its financial position through debt restructuring, interest rate reductions, and increased liquidity.
"I'm pleased that our refinancing has been completed," ISI's CEO Ægir Páll Friðbertsson stated. "By replacing the previous bond with a new 3.5-year bond, simplifying our debt structure, and lowering our interest burden, we've established a solid foundation for continued healthy operations and future growth. With interest rates declining and a balanced debt portfolio, we are in a strong position to maintain financial stability and deliver on our operational goals."
Explaining the entire operation, Iceland Seafood International said that in April 2025, it completed a primary refinancing with the issuance of the ICESEA 28 10 bond, with a maturity of 3.5 years. This transaction reduced short-term debt by EUR 27.6 million, with a corresponding increase in long-term debt. The effective interest rate is now approximately 5.2%, considering currency swap agreements based on the current exchange and Euribor rates.
The previous bond, ICESEA 25 06, which had a fixed interest rate of 13%, including 7.35% following a covenant default after the sale of Iceland Seafood UK in the fall of 2023, was paid off on June 23, 2025. According to ISI's release, the new terms are expected to result in a substantial reduction in the company's interest expense.
In addition, the Icelandic company explained that the refinancing of bank loans abroad has also reduced lending margins by 0.5 to 1.0 percentage points. "The Group's loan structure has been simplified, contributing to improved oversight and operational efficiency," the release reads.
Finally, ISI said that the commercial papers issued in April and June as part of the refinancing, totaling ISK 2,700 million, with flat interest rates between 8.5% and 8.7% (a premium of 71 to 72 basis points over the 6-month Euribor), have been converted to euros through currency swap agreements and have a maturity of 6 months.
As mentioned above, Iceland Seafood International is coming from a difficult time. Unprecedented cost increases and high volatility severely affected its operation in 2022. "Vicious cycle cost us dearly," said then CEO, Bjarni Ármannsson, who described that financial year as "a challenging year in every sense of the word," as ISI reported losses of EUR 9.9 million.
The following year, 2023, was not good for Iceland Seafood International either. Ægir Páll Friðbertsson, who had been appointed CEO in September 2023 to replace Ármannsson, summed it up by saying that it had been "a challenging year for Iceland Seafood and its employees." On the earnings side, normalized profit before tax (PBT) for the full year had been EUR 0.7 million, compared to EUR 12.1 million in the previous year.
Iceland Seafood's results for the year were also influenced by the sale of Iceland Seafood UK, which, after much back and forth during the year, was completed in September, coinciding with Friðbertsson's arrival at the company. The total negative impact of the transaction amounted to EUR 18.8 million (USD 20.3 million). Including this transaction and income tax, the resulting full-year loss for the Group was EUR 20.3 million (USD 21.9 million).
Now, following the refinancing completion, ISI hf.'s long-term debt amounts to approximately EUR 35 million. The company said that the proportion of long-term debt has increased, and a better balance between short-term and long-term liabilities has been achieved, strengthening the company's financial position and increasing its strategic flexibility.
