Transfer of Ownership of Shares

A decision has been made to transfer the 9.71% shareholding of the
Dutch holding company Kjalar Invest B.V. in Kaupthing Bank hf.
(71,883,352 shares), to a new and unfounded company, owned by the
same parties. The new company will be a Dutch holding company, which
will be a sister company of Kjalar Invest B.V.

It has also been decided to transfer the 0.17% shareholding of Egla
hf. in Kaupthing  Bank hf. (1,270,000 shares) to the same unfounded
company. It is estimated that the founding of the new company and the
transfer of the shares, altogether 9.88%, will take place in the next
few days.

The new company and Kjalar Invest B.V. will be 100% owned by Kjalar
Holding B.V. Kjalar Holding B.V. is 99.99% owned by Egla hf., which
is 100% owned by Kjalar hf. The remaining 0.01% is owned by Kjalar
hf. Kjalar hf. is under the majority ownership of Ólafur Ólafsson.
However, before the transfer, Egla hf. will become the sole
shareholder of Kjalar Holding B.V. through an acquisition of the
aforementioned 0.01% stake. After the transfer, the new company will
be the registered owner of the shares in the share register of
Kaupthing Bank hf., instead of Kjalar Invest B.V. and Egla hf. The
real ownership of the shares will not have changed though since the
new company is owned by the same parties.

Kjalar Invest B.V. and Egla hf. are financially connected to
Hjörleifur Thór Jakobsson, board member and primary insider in
Kaupthing Bank hf., who is also the CEO of Egla hf. The new company
will also be financially connected to Hjörleifur.

After the transaction, parties financially connected to Hjörleifur
will, as before, own 73,162,179 shares in Kaupthing Bank hf., or
9.88%. Hjörleifur owns 12,788 shares in the Bank.


For further information please contact:
Jónas Sigurgeirsson - Chief Communications Officer, +354 444-6112


About Kaupthing Bank
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. The Bank operates in
ten countries, including all the Nordic countries, Luxembourg,
Switzerland, the UK and the US. In addition the Bank operates a
retail franchise in Iceland, where it is headquartered.

Kaupthing Bank is currently among the seven largest banks in the
Nordic region in terms of market capitalization. Through sound
organic growth and strategic acquisitions like the UK bank Singer &
Friedlander in 2005 and FIH Erhvervsbank in Denmark in 2004,
Kaupthing Bank has fortified its position to provide outstanding
services to its client base in the UK, the Nordic countries and
elsewhere in northern Europe. The Bank has 2,719 employees and total
assets of EUR 42.9 billion (as of 31 December 2006).
www.kaupthing.com