Valencia partnership helped set Samskip sale in motion

A shipping partnership with Spain’s Boluda Shipping led to the idea of selling Samskip in full, the Icelandic company’s chief executive, Ólafur Orri Ólafsson, told mbl.is. The sale to the Spanish company was announced on Wednesday and is expected to close by the end of the year.

Ólafsson said the idea emerged from cooperation on shipping routes in the Southern Seas. He said neither Samskip’s executives nor Boluda Shipping’s management had initiated the sale; instead, it developed naturally through their work together.

The companies have collaborated for three years on shared routes through vessel-sharing agreements. Ólafsson said such arrangements are common in international freight, where companies work together to reduce costs and improve service, but are not permitted in Iceland under the country’s strict competition rules.

Ólafsson took over as chief executive in October 2025 and began by selling several routes to Britain and Ireland. Samskip had been competing with ferries that crossed the English Channel in 16 hours and then remained in port for a full day before sailing again, he said.

The subsequent effort to improve the company’s operations created an opportunity to work with Boluda Shipping. Ólafsson said the sale would bring Samskip into a much larger transport network and allow the companies to improve service for customers.

Ólafsson, 31, is the son of Ólafur Ólafsson and Ingibjörg Kristjánsdóttir, Samskip’s principal owners until the sale is completed. He met Ignacio Boluda, chairman of Boluda Shipping, in Valencia in March 2023. Ignacio’s father, Vicente Boluda, owns and chairs the Boluda group. Ólafsson now lives in the Netherlands, where Samskip is headquartered in Rotterdam.

The purchase price will not be disclosed, Ólafsson said. He declined to comment on where the profit from the sale would be taxed.