The resolution committee of Landsbanki will in the coming weeks take over the operations of NP Hotels in Denmark and private jets owned by the rental company IceJet. Among the hotels is Copenhagen’s luxury hotel D’Angleterre.
From Copenhagen. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
“Negotiations are well underway and we are very content with them,” Landsbanki’s resolution committee’s information officer, Páll Benediktsson, told Fréttabladid.
NP Hotels and IceJet are in the ownership of the Icelandic holding company Nordic Partners. Nordic Partners bought D’Angleterre in the fall of 2007 and paid much more than the asking price.
In addition to D’Angleterre, hotels and restaurants such as Kong Fredrik and Front belong to NP Hotels.
IceJet owns five Dornier jets, which have been furnished for wealthy individuals and rented from Britain. The sale of three of these jets has been attempted in the past month.
However, Nordic Partners’ most extensive operations are in food production and real estate rental in Latvia. Vidskiptabladid business newspaper reported late last year that the company’s total debt is around ISK 90 billion (USD 720 million, EUR 500 million).
“The situation in Latvia is not much better than here. Operations are immensely difficult and companies there have gone through great trouble,” said Fridrik Jóhannsson, former CEO of Straumur-Burdarás who is now working on the financial reorganization of Nordic Partners.
Jóhannsson pointed out that the collapse of the real estate market and the decrease of the renting price had made the situation more difficult as Nordic Partners own 400,000 square meters of rental housing in Latvia.
“It has had a significant impact on the operations,” Jóhannsson said. Negotiations on the fate of Nordic Partners’ food production companies in the Baltic are currently being worked on in cooperation with the holding company’s executives.
Changes to the ownership structure of the Czech food production company Hamé, which is registered as a sister company to Nordic Partners, are not expected. Landsbanki financed the acquisition of Hamé like most other Nordic Partners’ investments.
