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PLAY (FPY, Reykjavik Keflavik) claims to have raised about USD40 million through a private share offering, its new investors including some of Iceland’s biggest investment firms and pension funds, the newspaper Fréttablaðið reported in separate articles on April 9 and April 14.

Birgir Jónsson, a former deputy chief executive and managing director at now-bankrupt WOW air (WW, Reykjavik Keflavik), will take over as chief executive of the would-be low-cost carrier on the investors’ request.

Sources told the newspaper that the new share capital had come courtesy of private investors such as Stoðir, formed in 1973 as a holding company for Loftleidir Icelandic and Air Iceland and, later, Icelandair Group, a stake it sold in 2006.

Other investors participating in the offering include Langasjós, which owns the wholesale food distributor Mata, and the family-owned investment firm Brimgarður. Einar Örn Ólafsson, a shareholder in Stoðir, leads a group of private investors who insisted on appointing Jónsson as CEO.

Birta and Lífsverk are among institutional investors that have resolved to invest....

Editorial Comment: Added details on shareholding sizes. - 15.04.2021 - 07:09 UTC

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