The deadline to submit purchase offers for Iceland ran out on Wednesday night and since then the Landsbanki resolution committee has been going over the bids with advisers. Old Landsbanki holds 67 percent of Iceland Foods and the bankrupt estate of Glitnir Bank holds ten percent of the company. The two companies are bidding on the combined shares of the two old banks.

At least two offers were received from two investment funds; BC Partners, a British company, on the one hand and Bain Capital, which is based in Boston, USA, on the other. No word has yet been released about the precise value of the offers, but they are thought to be around the GBP 1.5 billion that Landsbanki was hoping for. That is around ISK 300 billion.

The sale proceeds will largely be spent on repaying the British and Dutch governments for the money they lost in Icesave.

One of the founders of Bain Capital is Mitt Romney – who is now seen as one of the most likely Republican presidential candidates for the US election this autumn. Romney headed Bail Capital until 1999, before turning his attention to other projects. He still receives a cut of the company’s profits and has been paid millions of dollars from the company in recent years. Mitt Romney is one of the richest men ever to have tried to become President. His personal assets are reckoned to be as high as USD 250 million.

The drugs package, which contained a large number of ecstasy tablets, as well as cocaine, amphetamines and steroids, was sent to a small company in the Icelandic capital last October. The older suspect works for the company in question; but according to Vísir.is sources, he has never come to police attention before. The same anonymous sources say he believes he was tricked into the crime; saying that he was only asked to get a package containing steroids into the country unnoticed. He claims all the other drugs came as a complete surprise.

The police investigation was very big and was very labour intensive for several weeks leading up to the two men’s arrests.

The drugs were found at the port of Straumsvík (primarily used by the adjoining aluminium smelter) near Hafnarfjörður, in the Reykjavík region. The drugs were found in several packages on board the Dutch container ship, Francisca. The ship arrived in Iceland from Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Össur Skarphéðinsson

The Icelandic foreign minister will take control of the country’s Icesave defence preparations at the EFTA court; despite loud calls from the opposition to keep the case in the hands of the business and commerce minister.

Össur Skarphéðinsson, Minister for Foreign Affairs, has been given political oversight of Iceland’s defence case being prepared after the EFTA decided to take the country to court over its handling of the failed Icesave accounts in the Netherlands and the UK. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting today.

The decision has been widely discussed in recent days, including in Alþingi, among opposition parties and in the Alþingi foreign affairs committee — which itself voted to keep the case in the hands of Minister of Economic Affairs, Árni Páll Árnason; who was in charge of all things Icesave before the EFTA decided to take the matter to court last week.

The foreign affairs committee vote was won by the two Independence Party MPs, two Progressive Party MPs and one from the ruling Left Green Movement. Meanwhile the four remaining government committee members from the Social Democrats and the Left Greens voted to transfer the matter to the foreign minister. The Movememt’s Birgitta Jónsdóttir agreed with the government stance, but she only holds observer status. It was therefore 5-4.

The committee meeting last night was also attended by permanent secretaries from the Prime Ministry and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs; as well as an expert adviser in matters related to the EFTA court. They all agreed that the case belongs with Össur Skarphéðinsson.

The committee’s main concern when voting for Árni was that the EFTA court case should not be put in the same hands as the Icelandic European Union accession negotiations. Also the committee stated that all parties and members of Alþingi need to unite behind the minister in this case and the majority of its members felt that unifying minister should be Árni Páll Árnason.

The government was duty bound to consider the committee’s suggestion carefully, but eventually this morning decided to go with the non-political experts’ recommendation.

Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon both told RÚV they were unsurprised by the decision and that now all efforts must be applied to putting together the strongest case possible for the Icelandic side, which hopes to persuade the EFTA court that it has not acted to break European rules. Iceland will argue that there was no legal requirement for a state guarantee of Icesave deposits and Jóhanna said she believes a victory in court is perfectly possible with a good defence case.

Meanwhile Iceland’s economics and business minister Árni Páll Árnason declared that the danger posed by the court case is “limited” — reasoning that by far the biggest debt, somewhere close to ISK 200 billion, will be paid by the estate of Landsbanki in either event. The danger lies in the application of fines and interest in the event of an Icelandic court defeat; and the possibility that the country’s emergency finance laws will be brought into question.

All leaders of Iceland’s political parties were quick to call for parliamentary unity in the authorities’ approach to the court case. They all committed themselves to work together and avoid the bickering and political points scoring that surrounded the Icesave dispute over much of the last three years.

Lárus Blöndal, a Supreme Court of Iceland judge and member or Iceland’s most recent Icesave trilateral negotiating delegation told Vísir.is that he thinks it is unlikely the British and Dutch would want to renegotiate another new payment contract before the court case starts; saying that both countries feel that the contract route has come to a natural dead end. They will in all likelihood not want to sit down to negotiate with Iceland about Icesave before the EFTA court makes a decision. On the other hand, he also believes it unlikely that the British or Dutch sides will pursue damages against Iceland.

He feels that if Iceland loses in court its membership of the EEA would be in jeopardy until the matter is satisfactorily resolved. The other two countries would, he believes, use political pressure instead of taking legal action in Reykjavík courts.

Despite an exchange of explanatory letters between Iceland and ESA and the fact that the bankruptcy estate of Landsbanki has now started paying the British and Dutch back, the organisation’s opinion has remained firm and the long-awaited prospect of court surprised few in Iceland. The original statement from ESA can be read here.

ESA is responsible for making sure EFTA members Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway follow the rules of the European Economic Area (which is the EU plus the above three countries). Switzerland is also a member of the EFTA, but chose to remain outside the EEA. The EEA allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the European single market, provided they adopt and implement all EU regulations relating to the common market — including in the banking sector.

ESA president Oda Helen Sletnes says that her organisation believes that European law requires Iceland to insure all depositors with Icelandic bank branches for a maximum of EUR 20,000 each in the event of a bank going bankrupt and that the payments should be made within one year of the bankruptcy. Three years have now passed without those obligations being upheld, she says.

The bankruptcy estate of Landsbanki (the parent company of Icesave) hopes to finish paying priority claimants back by the end of 2013; but Sletnes says that one of the key tenants of the EEA legislation is to stop depositors needing to claim their money back as claimants on the bank’s estate.

The court case is expected to conclude by the end of next year and a verdict is expected in early 2013.

Regardless of if Iceland wins or loses the case, the lost funds will be repaid by the Landsbanki estate. If Iceland wins, that money will go directly to the British and Dutch governments, no breach of EEA rules will be recorded and the matter will be closed; whereas if Iceland loses it will become responsible for immediate refund of the money, plus interest. The EFTA court verdict would mean that Iceland would be in breach of the EEA contract until all three nations come to a suitable agreement. The court cannot force payment, but armed with the verdict, the British and Dutch could then go to an Icelandic court with their demands, if they chose to do so.

Icelanders twice voted ‘no’ in referendums on public Icesave repayments, which left the unhappy British and Dutch governments queueing up with other creditors — uncertain how much (if any) of their money they would get back, or when. It quickly came to light that Landsbanki would be able to recover nearly all of the lost money demanded by priority claimants and the Icelandic government declared that the dispute between the three governments should therefore close.

Now that Landsbanki has paid over ISK 350 billion (EUR 2.2 billion) off, Vísir.is contacted the EFTA surveilance authority, the ESA, to ask how that affects it possible case against Iceland.

The ESA information officer, Trygve Mellvang-Berg, responded that the payment will have no effect at all on the case status; but no decision has yet been made about legal action.

“We believe the payment is in accordance with the information we received in the written answer from the Icelandic authorities to the ESA assessment from this summer. Still no decision has been made concerning the next step in the case,” Mellvang-Berg says in a written reply to Vísir.

Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, the Icelandic Minister of Finance, was unwilling to speculate on the ESA’s next step — but said that the payment from the bankruptcy estate should have a positive influence of the atmosphere within the ESA and between the three countries. “It is of course only positive and good that claimants are getting their first payment — and a big payment. I think that this should have a beneficial effect on the atmosphere around all of this,” he said.

This recent acquisition now gives Actavis much greater flexibility in tender markets and also allows for minimum order quantities for smaller markets.

CEO at Actavis, Claudio Albrecht explained, “I have known this professional company for a long time and I am very proud that the owners decided to choose Actavis as their new partner. It is obvious that they had other opportunities as well.”

One of the Dutch company’s future roles will be the bulk packaging of pharmaceuticals produced in the Actavis facility in Alathur (India). Another advantage of this packaging centre will be a significant reduction in freight costs.

“Actavis buys a considerable amount of tablets from third-party manufacturers. The lead times are sometimes between six and nine months and therefore much too long. With the acquisition of PharmaPack International we are able to reduce these lead times by more than 50 per cent,” added Albrecht.

Gerard Stevers, Director and owner of PharmaPack International added, “PharmaPack will benefit from the global organisation of Actavis and have great opportunities to grow within this international group…Actavis has very dynamic growth plans for the future and this expansion will have very positive effects for PharmaPack.”

For further information regarding this acquisition, alongside details about the generic pharmaceuticals company, visit www.actavis.com/en.

Faced with harsh budget cuts, city officials have already stopped sending the festive freebies to Washington and Antwerp.

According to Aften newspaper, cost cutters were considering dumping Rotterdam from the Christmas list, as the city is believed to be of little value to Oslo’s PR status.

After tallying up the cost of scrapping the annual tradition altogether, cancelling lighting ceremonies, or letting just the Dutch city go without, Oslo has, however, decided to extend good will to all.

Last year, the gratis tree cutting, shipping and lighting ceremonies cost the Norwegian taxpayer NOK 780,000 (EUR 101,000).

Demonstrating that the free spruces are a symbol of the close ties between the countries, Stian Berger Rosland, head of Oslo’s city government, will attend the tree-lighting ceremony in Trafalgar Square, while other officials will head to Rotterdam and Reykjavik for their celebrations.

The Oslo Christmas trees are iconic symbols of Christmas in all three cities and have been enthusiastically welcomed by locals for many years.

He is the second man to be arrested in the case which has been under investigation for many months and concerns the smuggling of large amounts of illegal drugs into Iceland.

At the beginning of this month Icelandic police intercepted a package entering Iceland on board a container ship from the Netherlands. In the package, Visir.is sources claim, there were tens-of-kilogrammes of ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines and steroids.

The package was addressed to a small wholesale company in Reykjavik and shortly afterwards police arrested one of its staff members and received court permission to hold him in custody on 11th October. Interestingly, the man arrested in Reykjavik is in his fifties, recently became a grandfather and has no previous police record — something investigators find rather unusual in this sort of case. But the investigation was not over at that point because the ringleader, who sent the drugs to Iceland, was still walking free.

Police attention quickly came to focus on Spain, and specifically onto a resident Icelander in his 40s who has previously been convicted for drugs smuggling. He is accused of planning the container ship drugs package from the Netherlands. When he flew to Iceland this weekend police were waiting and he was arrested as soon as the plane landed.

According to sources, the police investigation is very broad and has been supported by phone tapping, among other methods. It is by far the country’s biggest drugs case so far this year.

The court ruled on eleven different cases relating to the emergency laws and came to the same decision in all eleven cases. In one of them it decided that both Icesave and so-called wholesale loans will be counted as priority claims in the estate of Old Landsbanki — reinforcing a previous decision by the Reykjavik District Court. The public gallery was full when the verdicts were made.

Herdis Hallmarsdottir, a member of the Landsbanki resolution committee, told a press conference after the court verdict that claimants will not be told when payments will be made from the bankruptcy estate before the 17th November, when a claimants’ meeting will be held.

Hallmarsdottir said that the resolution committee is currently sitting on a pot of ISK 500 billion (EUR 3.1 billion) in cash from recovered assets; although some of that money will probably be discounted due to several ongoing disputes. Nevertheless, she said, there should be at least ISK 400 billion (EUR 2.5 billion) ready for payment to wholesale loan claimants and the British and Dutch governments (to reimburse them for covering lost assets in Icesave) within weeks — with more to follow. Priority claims to the estate of Landsbanki amount to a total of ISK 1,320 billion (EUR 8.25 billion).

Meanwhile, the Icelandic government welcomed the court’s decision; saying that all uncertainty surrounding this most fundamental of issues has now been eliminated.