REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Oct. 19, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Fundamental changes to the structure of FL Group were agreed this morning by the Groups Board and investments have now become the main focus of the company. Hannes Smarason will become the CEO of the company. Its investment activities will be split into three divisions: Private Equity, specialising in management, acquisition and restructuring projects, headed by Jon Sigurdhsson, Asset Management and Portfolio Investments, headed by Albert Jonsson, and Icelease, a division dealing with purchase, sale and leasing on the international aircraft market; this will be headed by Halldor Vilhjalmsson, current managing director of Icelease.
In addition to the changes listed above, it has been decided to divide FL Group's airline and tourist service operations between two separate subsidiaries. One of these, Icelandair Group, will handle international airline operations, i.e. Icelandair, Icelandair Cargo, Loftleidhir-Icelandic, Bluebird Cargo, Icelandair Technical Services and Icelandair Ground Services. These companies have a combined turnover of ca. ISK 35 billion and employ about 2,000 people. Jon Karl Olafsson, CEO of Icelandair, has been engaged as CEO of Icelandair Group. "This is a challenging and exciting task and I look forward to meet the challenge with the great staff of the Icelandair Group. These are strong and growing companies", says Jon Karl Olafsson.
The companies involved in domestic tourist services, i.e. Air Iceland, Iceland Tour, Icelandair Hotels, Iceland Travel, Reykjavik Excursions and Icelandair-Hertz Car Rental, will come under FL Travel Group; THorsteinn Orn Gudhmundsson, a SVP at FL Group, has been engaged as its CEO. These companies have a combined turnover of c. ISK 11 billion and employ about 500 people. "These are strong independent tourism companies. We will not try to merge their operations, but the aim is to make each one more focused and stronger and I look forward to face that challenge with the leaders and staff of all companies", says THorsteinn Orn Gudhmundsson.
"These changes are made to clarify the operation focus in each of these companies," says Hannes Smarason. "The result will be strong companies, each in their own field, with clear targets regarding growth and profitability, under the direction of excellent managers. In addition, a clearer division is made between operations and investing."
Following the above changes to the structure of FL Group, it has been agreed that Ragnhildur Geirsdottir will step down as CEO. "In the light of the changes in the structure of the company, the board and I have agreed that the time has come to go our separate ways," she says. "The past few years have been a very interesting period of transformation at the company, and its operations and profit levels are in very good shape. I should like to thank all the fine people who work at the company for the pleasant time we have had together, and I wish them and the company every success in the future."
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