Surprisingly in recent years one of the most active players in aviation finance has come from Iceland. Two groups Avion and Fons Eignarhaldsfelag or their friends /proxies jumped onto the world stage. A third - the former Government controlled national Carrier Icelandair now FL group was already well established.
Avion owned XL Airways Group until it divested in 2006. The currently own a number of freight and shipping companies including Air Atlanta Icelandic one of the largest ACMI providers in the world.
The other group made some interesting investments. It made money of our a holding in EasyJet at one time challenging Stelios for the largest single block. Once they dumped this holding they invested into American buying near the top of the AMR value only to see that price plummet. Today they own interests in Sterling (DK), Astreus (UK) and Iceland Express.
These guys are players and have a role in the world aviation market. The meltdown of Stocks that accelerated into a rout over the weekend also hit the Icelandic banks with the government essentially agreeing to bail out the big 3 players who are all heavily invested in these 3 companies.
The ripple out effect will be felt far beyond the borders of little old Iceland.
I could decipher more but its pretty complicated. All of it is not pretty.
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