The Icelandic government sold a 22.5% stake in Íslandsbanki bank last Tuesday in an offering for professional investors. Opposition MPs have criticised the shares’ low price and the sale’s lack of transparency. Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson says the aim was to acquire long-term investors and that Icelandic pension funds were the main purchasers.
Íslandsbanki was fully owned by the Icelandic state until last year, when it sold a 35% stake in the bank, something that had been on the government agenda for years. While last year’s sale was a public offering, this week’s was only open to professional investors, who received an invitation to buy shares, which were then sold at a 5% discount from their market value. The sale was successful, reducing the government’s stake in the bank from 65% to 42.5%.
Investors received insider information
According to information from Icelandic State Financial Investments (ISFI), demand for the shares was high. Both Icelandic and foreign investors showed interest in the sale, though the identity of the investors has not been made public. Investors were required to sign a confidentiality agreement, meaning they were temporarily granted access to inside information. Investors had already made a profit yesterday, when shares in the bank rose by ISK 4-5 billion [$31.1-38.9 million; €28.3-35.4 million] following the sale.
MPs criticised the sale’s lack of transparency in Parliament yesterday, as well as the discount given to investors. Financial expert Ásgeir Brynjar Torfason told RÚV it is unclear how the investors were selected, and that is a question that ISFI and the Ministry of Finance need to answer. He also called on authorities to answer why such a large discount was given, despite high demand for the shares.
Finance Minister responds to criticism
In an interview with RÚV, Minister of Finance Bjarni Benediktsson called the discount on the shares a small one, saying that Icelandic pension funds were the main purchasers in the offering. “We did not go the route of looking for the pension fund or the investor who wanted to offer the highest price and let them have as much as they wanted. We took another route. We wanted to go toward more decentralised ownership and we wanted to consider what the market conditions would be like when the offering ended. That there would be a [financially] healthy group behind the bank.”
