Revenue 36.8 million kr (2005) Website www.kingsbay.no Number of employees 32 (2007) | Net income 0.2 million kr (2005) Founded 1916 | |
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Key people Ole Charles Ryder Øiseth (CEO) Parent organization Ministry of Trade and Industry | ||
Kings Bay AS is a government enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry that operates the entire settlement of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard. The settlement, the most northerly civilian in the world serves research staff. The company provides the necessary infrastructure, such as transport (including the airport Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben), real estate, power and water supply, catering and other facilities. The company is also responsible for administering Bjørnøen AS, a government enterprise that owns the entire island of Bjørnøya. In the summer the company also handles cruise ships that arrive at Ny-Ålesund.
The company was founded in 1916 as Kings Bay Kull Company with the intention of operating a coal mine. It was later nationalized, and in 1962 the mine closed in the context of a political crisis in Norway known as the Kings Bay Affair (Kings Bay-saken). A research facility was subsequently set up in at Ny-Ålesund, to be run by the company.