A frozen message in a bottle was washed off the coast in Norway 16 years after a couple from Shetland threw it into the sea while sailing.

When Helene Hundeide, from Måløy, found the frozen bottle, the 24-year-old was searching for a place to set her hammock up and make a fire.

Inside, she noticed a message posted by Peter and Susan Henry from Noonsbrough on August 7, 2004.

The message said that the couple were on the Vega yacht, returning home after 10 days sailing around Unst – and asked anyone who noticed the note to contact them.

“It was very exciting,” said Ms. Hundeide. “I have never found a bottle mail before, and that it would be as old as 16 years – wow!

“That was absolutely incredible.”

Ms. Hundeide, who manages power lines, attempted to contact the couple via the email address on the note but discovered that it was out of use.

She then posted the photo on a local Facebook group and shared it on the page Stories n Photos o Maritime Shetland, where its senders were recognized by several people. The story was also picked up in Måløy by the Fjordenes Tidende newspaper.

Ms. Hundeide was able to reach Mr. Henry within an hour with the help of Facebook users.

“He was surprised that the bottle post had been found after so many years,” said Ms. Hundeide.

Ms. Hundeide has also talked to Mrs. Henry and says that when the pandemic is over, they are both “very nice people” whom she wants to meet in Noonsbrough.

“It looks like a beautiful place,” she said. “I love to travel, so that’s the next destination I will visit.”

In the meantime, Ms. Hundeide says she plans to frame the message.

“It is in good condition, so this is a memory for life,” she added.

Source: Daily Mail

This year, Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery giant Grab is considering a listing in the United States, encouraged by strong demand for initial public offerings (IPOs) from investors, three sources familiar with the issue told Reuters.

Grab’s IPO could raise at least US$2 billion, which would possibly make it the Southeast Asian company’s biggest overseas share offering.

The proposals have not been finalized, including the size of the problem and timing, and are subject to market conditions, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to talk on the matter.
Grab, based in Singapore, declined to comment on the potential IPO.

From its origins as a ride-hailing company in Malaysia in 2012, Grab, whose supporters include SoftBank Group Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, has rapidly grown to become the region’s most valuable start-up worth over US$16 billion.

The overall net community revenue of Grab jumped by approximately 70 percent year on year in 2020 and recovered comfortably above pre-pandemic levels.

Moody’s said Grab had cash reserves of around US$3.2 billion this month, which the rating agency “expects will be sufficient to cover negative operating cash flow, capital spending at its transport and food delivery businesses and scheduled debt maturities over at least the next two-three years.”

One of the sources said that as some of its long-term investors cut stakes and new investors come on board, he expects Grab’s IPO to raise significantly more than US$2 billion.

Grab has said that even in all its operating markets, including Indonesia, the largest, its ride-hailing business is breaking. By the end of 2021, it expects its food delivery business to break even.

The IPO plans would come after merger discussions with Indonesian rival Gojek were derailed.

After a costly five-year battle, Grab caught global attention when Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to the company in 2018 and took a stake in Grab in exchange.

It currently operates across eight Southeast Asian countries in 397 cities and its app has seen 214 million downloads.

Source: South China Morning Post