Iceland to sell off Landsbanki’s retail assets

ICELAND is expected to speed up a sale of retail assets belonging to Landsbanki in an attempt to pay off the lion’s share of its debt to the UK.

The nationalised Icelandic bank has stakes in the frozen food chain, Iceland, as well as the department store group House of Fraser and the famous London toy store Hamleys.

It is understood that the bank, nationalised in 2008 during the financial crisis, is now run by a committee which will attempt to raise £1.5 billion in asset sales in the next few months.

The government in Reykjavik plans to use the money to help pay back £2.3bn stemming from the collapse the bank’s subsidiary, Icesave. British savers were bailed out by the UK government while the Netherlands is also owed huge sums.

In a referendum last April Icelandic voters rejected a plan to pay back the debt. However, president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson decided that the Landsbanki assets would be used to repay its debt while an Icelandic court ruled that British and Dutch deposits had priority over bond holders.

If successful, the sales could bring in between £1.3bn or could surpass £1.5bn, depending on the level of interest.