Five Icelandic carriers and three European charter carriers have changed owners as part of deals involving the sale of assets at Iceland's two largest investment groups.
The FL Group has sold its entire shareholding in the Icelandair Group, expecting to realise a profit of ISK26 billion ($385 million). Three groups of Icelandic investors have already acquired 50.5% of the shares through the initial public offering. Glidnir Bank, an Icelandic/Norwegian finance group, will underwrite the remaining shares. Icelandair's management is intending to take up to a 4% stake in the company, which also includes Icelandair Cargo, Blue Bird Cargo, Air Iceland and Loftleidir Icelandic.
Icelandair is planning to boost capacity by 17% next year. This includes the resumption of flights from Reykjavik to Halifax in Canada and frequency boosts on some of its services to US and European cities. However, it is dropping its San Francisco service in March.
In a separate deal, the Avion Group is selling its 100% stake in the XL Leisure Group for $450 million, making an estimated profit of $107 million before tax. The sale is being made to a buy-out team, led by Phillip Wyatt, chief executive of XL Leisure. XL's interests include charter airlines Excel Airways of the UK, Star Airlines of France and Germany's Star Europe. Between them these carriers operate about 30 aircraft.
Meanwhile, another Icelandic investment company, Fons Eignarhaldsfelag, has taken a 51% stake in UK charter carrier Astraeus for £5 million ($9.5 million). Astraeus operates a fleet of 10 Boeing 737s and 757s from London Gatwick and Manchester to African and European tourist destinations.
The Icelandair Group has been successfully floated
Source: Airline Business
