Every day, either the Color Fantasy or the Color Magic sails in and out of Oslo, arriving from or sailing to Kiel in Germany. Now the shipowner behind Color Line’s cruise-ferries and other vessels has decided to sell the entire business to help lead it into “a new era.”
The Swedish industrial and shipping firm Stena is buying up all the shares in Color Group now held by shipowner Olav Nils Sunde and his family. Both Stena and Color are family-owned, and those involved agreed to withhold the price and terms of the deal.
Sunde, however, stated that after 30 years of owning and running Color Line, “it was time to give it a new, long-term owner with the industrial scale and competence to lead Color Line into a new era.” He said the sale is aimed at “giving the shipping line the best possible foundation” for the future.
“Even though Color Line is very strong,” Sunde stated, “the future will pose considerable demands for readjustments and digitalization, while customers’ needs and expectations are developing all the time.” He called it a “privilege” to have owned Color Line and developed it along with “clever and engaged colleagues.”
Sunde took over the Oslo-Kiel passenger-, ferry and cargo service when it was still part of the old Jahre Line. With new cruise-ferry ships between Oslo and Kiel and new higher-speed ferry routes between other Scandinavian ports, Color Line became a popular form of both transport between Norway and Europe and for mini-holidays on board.
Stena announced that it intends to keep Color Line running as an independent operation that will retain its branding, local management in Norway and Norwegian-registered ships. Nor are there expected to be any changes in sailings, reservations or passenger operations.
Sunde called the decision to sell “sad but correct,” since Color Line “will now get even greater opportunities” for development. While Color Line has around 2,200 employees, five ships and revenues of around NOK 6.7 billion, Stena is one of Sweden’s largest family-owned companies with 17,300 employees, revenues of SEK 52 billion and 40 ships sailing on routes in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
The sale remains subject to regulatory approval but is expected to be finalized in early 2027.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
