News

02.08.2007

EIMSKIP COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF VERSACOLD INCOME FUND

Eimskip Holdings Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Hf. Eimskipafélag Íslands announced today that Eimskip has successfully completed its previously announced offer to acquire all the issued and outstanding trust units of Versacold Income Fund.  The aggregate acquisition cost, including debt, is CDN$1,180 million.

Versacold has applied to de-list the Units and the Debentures from the Toronto Stock Exchange and will apply to the Canadian Securities Administrators to cease to be a reporting issuer.

The acquisition of Versacold fits well within Eimskip’s long term strategy to build a worldwide network of temperature controlled transportation and warehousing services.  The Versacold facilities are complimentary to Eimskip’s and the combined company will have a presence in the temperature controlled transportation and warehousing services market in every continent, except Africa.

Baldur Gudnason, CEO of Eimskip commented:

“Versacold is a great company with a dedicated management team that has enjoyed a number of successes and accomplishments that we intend to build upon. I believe that Eimskip’s complementary and extensive operations in shipping, trucking and storage will facilitate Versacold’s current plans to expand their presence in public refrigerated warehousing, third party logistics and transportation. The combination of our companies will allow us to pursue and accelerate this vision, ensuring Versacold’s existing customers are offered the same quality of service across an even broader spectrum of the supply chain.”

Brent Sugden, CEO of Versacold commented:

“This is an exciting time for Versacold as we join forces with an expansive and quickly growing international transportation and cold storage company. I am particularly pleased that we are joining forces with a company that recognizes our accomplishments at Versacold and supports our plans for continued growth. I am impressed with the drive and energy of Baldur and the team at Eimskip, and I believe they are very well placed to accelerate the expansion of our supply chain offering to existing and new customers.”

Eimskip worked with Toronto-based KingSett Capital to structure and finance the acquisition.

KingSett, through KingSett Real Estate Growth LP No. 3, provided structured real estate secured financing to the transaction.

RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisor to Eimskip on the transaction and was the Sole Lead Arranger and Bookrunner on the senior debt financing.

Bennett Jones LLP and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP acted as legal advisors

About Versacold Income Fund

Versacold Income Fund is an unincorporated, open‑ended limited purpose trust. The trust was created to invest in public refrigerated warehousing, distribution and related businesses, initially through the acquisition of Versacold Holdings Corp.

Versacold is a leading public refrigerated warehousing (PRW) company in the United States and in the world, with 72 facilities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Versacold’s operations provide global refrigerated storage capacity of approximately 290 million cubic feet to a diverse group of food producers, processors, and wholesale and retail distributors. Versacold also provides fully integrated refrigerated distribution services.

Versacold Income Fund’s units and convertible debentures trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the respective symbols of ICE.UN, ICE.DB, ICE.DB.A, ICE.DB.B and ICE.DB.C. To find out more about Versacold (TSX: ICE.UN), visit our website at www.versacold.com.

About Eimskip

Hf. Eimskipafelag Islands is one of the largest companies in Iceland and is publicly listed on the Icelandic Stock Exchange. The company has over 90 years of experience in providing transportation, warehousing and logistics services in Europe, primarily in the North Atlantic region. 

Operating with 200 locations around the world in over 30 countries with a total of 10,000 employees, Hf. Eimskipafelag Islands has global reach. It has an annual turnover exceeding CDN$ 2 billion and estimated 2007 EBITDA of CDN$ 200 million.  It owns or operates 50 vessels, 100 cold-store facilities, 25 wide body cargo aircraft and 2,000 trucks and trailers.

Eimskip is traded on the Icelandic Stock Exchange under the symbol of HFEIM. To find out more about Eimskip, visit our website at www.eimskip.is.

About KingSett Capital

KingSett Capital is a Private Equity real estate investment business seeking opportunities where active management can create value.  KingSett has closed three investment funds totaling $1.3 billion of equity from 11 institutional investors for a $4.6 billion investment program.  KingSett implements value creation plans through structuring financial solutions for its partners and implementing real estate strategies to maximize value.  To learn more about KingSett, visit their website at www.kingsettcapital.com.