13.06.2012

U.S. ATOP events to be terminated

The Winding-up Board of Landsbanki Íslands hf. (“WUB”) instituted a claim filing process in 2009. For the holders of Landsbanki bonds, this included the blocking of a holder’s bonds and the filing of a claim directly with the WUB. Claimants were required to have their positions blocked as an integral part of the claims filing process, in order to prove ownership.

In connection with the U.S. bond issues only, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (“DBTCA”) filed a claim for each of the bond issuances for which it acted as trustee. The WUB accepted the DBTCA Global claims, and rejected all of the claims filed by individual owners of beneficial interest of the U.S. bond issues (“beneficial holder”). The decisions were challenged and mediated based on the precedent of the Supreme Court’s ruling in case nr. 398/2011, Eyrir Invest ehf. vs. Kaupþing banka hf. and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, handed down on the 12th of October 2011. The Supreme Court ruled that the trust was empowered to file a claim as the sole note holder and that empowerment excluded the beneficial holders from filing individual claims based on their participation. Based on the Supreme Court’s ruling the WUB issued a series of summons to the beneficial holders to discuss their claims. Subject to those meeting all beneficial holders that filed individual claims with the WUB have withdrawn their objections to the WUB’s decisions, thus the WUB’s decision with respect to the acceptance of the DBTCA claims and rejection of other claims relating to the same is now final. Based upon the foregoing, proof of ownership is no longer required for the beneficial holders of the U.S. bond issues for which DBTCA Global claims have been filed.

As a result, the WUB is now terminating the Automated Tender Offer Program (“ATOP”) events established at The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) for the Landsbanki CUSIP numbers listed below. On the 26th of June 2012, the WUB will request that any bond positions previously tendered into these ATOP events be returned to their original “target” CUSIP number (the “Release”).

The original “target” CUSIP numbers are as follows:

  • 5150X1AA7
  • 5150X0AA9
  • 5150X1AB5
  • 5150X0AB7
  • 5150X5AA8
  • 5150X4AA1
  • 5150X1AD1
  • 5150X0AD3

Once the Release has been effected through DTC, the bond positions formerly in ATOP will be freely tradable in the applicable target CUSIP, through DTC, the same will apply for positions that are blocked through CSDs.

If you are a holder of any bonds with the target CUSIP numbers listed above and have any questions, you may contact our agent Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions, LLC, via e-mail to landsbanki@epiqsystems.com.

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