Tuesday, May 14, 2024

"Last private land on Svalbard up for sale for €300 million"

Here's your chance!

From The Barents Observer, May 12:

With 60 square kilometers, about the size of Manhattan, and a coastline of five kilometers, the unique faraway property on Svalbard is a geopolitical hotspot in a warming Arctic.  

It is AS Kulspids that is up for sale, a company holding the only privately owned land on Svalbard.

“A unique opportunity to acquire the Company holding the last remaining private owned land on Svalbard with significant environmental, scientific and economic importance,” reads the short text in the online advert (pdf).

The land, named “Søre Fagerfjord” in the Svalbard Treaty, is located on the southwestern coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the archipelago halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

“This is the only possibility for a buyer to get a position in the High Arctic and establish a strategic foothold,” said Per Kyllingstad to Bloomberg. Kyllingstand is the lawyer representing the sellers.

No-one, except polar bears and Arctic foxes, live at the property in the inner part of Recherchefjorden. A cabin was built here in 1918 as AS Kulspids wanted to explore for coal and asbest. No commercial resources were discovered.

Today’s owners of the company are Norwegians and the starting bid is €300 million....

....MUCH MORE