Seven Icelandic pension funds have hired a lawyer to protect their interests in a case against Samson holding company because of their claims to ISK billions in debentures. Three other pension funds might also participate in the lawsuit.
“This project has only just begun and I have an extension until the end of next month to make a statement of claims,” Vidar Lúdvíksson at Landslög Law Offices, who is representing the pension funds, told Fréttabladid. “The funds are collecting necessary data so I cannot state with any certainty at the moment how high amounts are involved for each pension fund.”
According to Haukur Haraldsson, managing director of the Pension Fund for State Employees (LSR), Iceland’s pension funds are looking into a few matters together because they all suffered losses when Iceland’s bank system collapsed. Haraldsson would not go into details at this stage.
Helgi Birgisson, liquidator of Samson’s bankruptcy estate, said the total value of debentures issued by Samson is ISK 24 billion (USD 204 million, EUR 140 million). There are several claimants and the pension funds are among them.
“[Samson’s] assets were worth around ISK 170 billion and 90 billion were lost when Landsbanki went bankrupt. There are also other assets and their value is being estimated. But they way it looks today, their value has been lost to a great extent,” Birgisson added.
Total claims to Samson’s bankruptcy estate amount to ISK 112 billion (USD 950 million, EUR 650 million).
Samson’s debts to its loan granters (Landsbanki, Straumur, Kaupthing, Glitnir and the German banks Commerzbank and Standard) amount to ISK 87 billion (USD 740 million, EUR 510 million).
