Seats Jonas
Kaupthing Bank - Thinking Beyond
Kaupthing Bank is a northern European bank offering integrated financial services to companies, institutional investors and individuals. These services include corporate banking, investment banking, capital markets services, asset management and comprehensive wealth management for private banking clients.
Kaupthing Bank was formed by the merger of Kaupthing and Búnaðarbanki Íslands in 2003 and is the largest bank in Iceland. The bank operates in ten countries, including all the Nordic countries (Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway and Sweden), Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK and the US. The bank is the eighth largest bank in the Nordic countries in terms of market capitalization and it employs over 2,500 people and maintains 36 retail branches in Iceland.
In recent years, Kaupthing Bank has been one of the fastest growing financial groups in Europe. The Bank’s expansion has been achieved through sound organic growth and a number of strategic acquisitions. The most recent acquisitions are those of FIH Erhvervsbank in Denmark in 2004 and in 2005 the UK bank Singer & Friedlander, now Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. The aim of this growth is to further enhance the Bank’s ability to provide comprehensive services to its client base in the UK, Scandinavia and elsewhere in northern Europe.
As of December 31st 2006, the bank had total assets of €42.9 billion. In 2006, it ranked number 1,006 on Forbes Global 2000, which is an annual ranking of top 2000 corporations in the world by Forbes magazine. The same year, it ranked number 177 (up by 34 seats from 2005) on the list of the world's largest banks composed annually by the international finance magazine The Banker.
In 2006, Kaupthing Bank had net earnings of €971 million, compared with €659 million in 2005. About 70% of the operating profit originated outside of Iceland (30% in Iceland, 34% in the UK, 26% in Scandinavia, 8% in Luxembourg and 2% in other countries).
The Name
The bank is known as Kaupthing Bank outside of Iceland. In Iceland, its official name is Kaupþing Banki hf. formerly, its official name was Kaupþing Búnaðarbanki hf., but the name was changed as the former name was considered too unwieldy for most people. From 2003 to 2006 the company used the name KB banki for its retail operations in Iceland. In December 2006 however, the bank started using the old name of Kaupþing for its network of high-street bank. It was announced that the change was part of the bank's plan to operate under the same name everywhere. [4]
History
Founded in 1930 Búnaðarbanki Íslands was publicly owned from its inception and was privatized by the government in stages between 1998 and 2003. Kaupþing Bank was founded in 1982. Four years later, it was one of the founding members of the Iceland Stock Exchange. Half of the bank was sold to the Icelandic savings banks in 1986. The other half was sold to Búnaðarbanki Íslands in 1990, which sold its shares to the savings banks in 1996. The savings banks began selling its shares to the public on the stock market in 2000.
Acquisitions, mergers, subsidiaries
- 1982 Kaupthing hf. founded in Iceland
- 1998 Kaupthing Luxembourg, S.A. opened
- 2000 Kaupthing Faroe Islands opened, Kaupthing New York opened, Kaupthing Stockholm opened
- 2001 Kaupthing Bank Copenhagen opened, Kaupthing Lausanne opened, Sofi acquired in Finland
- 2002 Aragon acquired in Sweden, JP Nordiska acquired in Sweden, Auðlind acquired in Iceland
- 2003 Kaupthing merges with Búnaðarbanki Íslands to form Kaupthing Bank, Tyren acquired in Norway, Norvestia acquired in Finland, Kaupthing Limited opened in the UK
- 2004 A. Sundvall acquired in Norway, FIH acquired in Denmark
- 2005 Singer & Friedlander acquired in the UK
- 2006 Kaupthing Limited merges with Singer & Friedlander to form Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander in the UK
About the Author
Jónas Sigurgeirsson
Chief Communications Officer, Kaupthing Bank
Phone: +354 444 6112
E-mail: jonas@kaupthing.com
Website: www.kaupthing.com
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US $750.00
