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Click on the picture to watch this audio slideshow about bird watching at Óshólmar, an area at the mouth of Eyjafjardará river just outside Akureyri in north Iceland, the largest Icelandic town outside the capital region. Not many tourists know about this attraction, which is perfect for a walk in the sun.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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Investment company Novator, owned by Icelandic entrepreneur Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, sold its controlling stake in the Bulgarian telecommunications company BTC to the US-based Global Investment Group AIG yesterday.
According to Fréttabladid, BTC is worth ISK 160 billion (USD 2.5 billion, EUR 1.8 billion).
Novator owned 85 percent of shares in BTC and booked a profit of ISK 55 to 60 billion (USD 858 million to 936 million, EUR 631 million to 688 million) from the sale. Other Icelandic investors, who owned a stake in the company, booked a profit ISK 6 billion (USD 94 million, EUR 69 million), which, according to mbl.is, is the highest profit from a single investment in the history of Icelandic business.
Novator originally acquired a 65 percent stake in BTC when it was privatized in 2004 in cooperation with several investment companies, including Advent International, Straumur, Burdarás and Iceland Telecom.
In 2005 and 2006, Novator increased its stake to 85 percent. The dividends since 2004 paid out to the investors correspond to five times the amount of the original investment.
Björgólfsson told Morgunbladid he was very satisfied with the outcome. He had taken on a complicated task in modernizing a previously state-owned telecommunications company.
Björgólfsson said Novator’s goals had been achieved after a short time and therefore it was time to sell BTC. “We have profited well and have a good reputation in Bulgaria and in the international market.”
AIG acquired a 90 percent stake in BTC and plans to acquire the remaining shares and de-list the company from the Stock Exchange in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital.
A skeleton from a person who suffered from the Paget’s disease of bone was unearthed this week during an archeological excavation project at Skriduklaustur in east Iceland, where a monastery was once operated.
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The human being will be on display for the first time in its natural environment in the Reykjavík Family Park and Zoo next weekend. Visitors can observe three men and one woman in a cage after 10 am on Saturday and Sunday.
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The formal Videy island swim took place yesterday and there were three participants, two men and one woman, Thórdís Hrönn Pálsdóttir, who is the first woman to participate in the Videy swim since 1959.
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The Environment Agency intends to investigate whether the Heath Protection Authority handled the situation in Eskifjördur, east Iceland, in the correct manner when contaminated water from a trawler was carried into the town’s drinking water system.
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The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book Puffins as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
Hendrikka Waage is an accomplished jewellery designer whose first children’s book Rikka and Her Magic Ring in Iceland, takes readers on an enchanted and educational journey through the country. It’s beautifully illustrated and a good lesson in geography, but the plot could have been better thought through and the moral of the story is a bit too prominent.
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On the third day of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption we drove from Skógar to Hvolsvöllur in total darkness, a distance of 18 kilometers. It was frightening, the darkness being so impenetrable that we could hardly see out the windows of the car. We could see faint lights from the farm standing right next to the highway.
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Ásmundur Sveinsson is among the foremost Icelandic sculptors. The current exhibition in the Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum in Reykjavík is entitled “I choose women who thrive…” and features women as symbols in the sculptor’s art. The works in the exhibition are selected from his entire career.
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