founded 2001 headquarters reykjav k iceland key people l ur gu mundsson executive chairman erlendur hjaltason co ceo sigur ur valt sson co ceo products insurance asset financing investments revenue 961.5 million 2007 1 profit 573.9 million 2007 1 total assets 8.011 billion 2007 1 number of employees 430 2007 1 website www.exista.com exista hf . is an icelandic financial services group formerly listed on the iceland stock exchange . its activities are based primarily on insurance underwriting and other financial services although it is also active in investments . the group s primary market is the nordic countries . contents 1 ownership 2 history 3 operations 3.1 insurance and financial services 3.2 investments 4 references 5 external links ownership edit the luxembourg registered exista s.a. has changed its name several times . it was originally compagnie financiere scandinave . a report published in the danish media in 2005 identified two owners 2 shapburg limited p.o. box 3186 road town tortola british virgin islands quenon investment limited p.o. box 3186 road town tortola british virgin islands the paper trail shows that both companies owned a stake in the luxembourg registered corporation gaumur holding which was controlling owner of baugur group . 2 both companies owned a stake in the luxembourg registered corporation compagnie financiere scandinave . a month after incorporation it was renamed the scandinavian holding and later meidur . 2 it was then renamed exista . both companies owned a stake in the luxembourg registered corporation alrosa finance . another shareholder was russian state owned diamond company alrosa . 2 shapburg limited owned a stake in the luxembourg registered corporation alfa finance holdings . another shareholder was alfa bank of russia . 2 history edit according to a report luxembourg registered compagnie financiere scandinave was renamed the scandinavian holding a month after incorporation . later it was renamed meidur s.a. . 2 meidur changed its name to exista . 3 exista was founded in 2001 by a consortium of icelandic savings banks as a vehicle to hold shares in kaupthing bank . 4 a controlling shareholding in exista was sold to a holding company of bakkav r founders g st and l dur gudmundsson in 2002 . 4 in september 2006 the firm was floated on the iceland stock exchange in a 2.6 billion initial public offering the biggest in the country s history . 5 the gudmundsson brothers continue however to hold a near 45 % stake in the business . 6 the company was delisted from the exchange in december 2008 following a share buyback . by 9 october 2008 kaupthing bank hf was forced into government receivership . 7 on 29 july 2009 wikileaks exposed a confidential 210 page document listing kaupthing s exposure to loans ranging from 45 million 1.25 billion . 8 the leaked presentation revealed the bank had loaned billions of euros to its major shareholders including a total of 1.43 billion to exista and subsidiaries which own 23 % of the bank . 9 operations edit insurance and financial services edit exista owns the icelandic non life insurance company v tryggingarf lag slands v s which holds around one third of the domestic market . 10 exista acquired control of v s from kaupthing bank in 2006 . 11 the firm also owns v s s sister company the life cover provider l f s. exista s third consolidated subsidiary is l sing which is a provider of asset financing . investments edit prior to the 2008 2011 icelandic financial crisis exista held a number of significant stakes in publicly traded companies . it opted to divest many of these including 20 % of sampo group 12 8.7 % of storebrand 13 and 39.6 % of bakkav r 14 in october 2008 in order to boost its capital position . it was also the largest single shareholder with almost 25 % of kaupthing bank before its de facto nationalisation by the icelandic government . 15 currently exista holds a 29 % share of jjb sports in conjunction with its chief executive chris ronnie 16 and is the sole owner of skipti the parent company of icelandic telecommunications provider s minn. 17 references edit a b c d annual report 2007 pdf . exista . retrieved 2008 10 31 . a b c d e f . the new times . 2008 10 21 . . another copy . rususa . 2008 10 21 . . an automatic translation discussion of the relationship between iceland and russia from the russian newspaper . . sgeir j nsson . why iceland . p. 92 . a b about exista chronicle . exista . retrieved 2008 10 31 . chung joanna 15 september 2006 . on europe ipo temperature starts to rise . financial times . retrieved 2008 10 31 . investor relations shareholders . exista . retrieved 2008 10 31 . http bankrun.us forums index.php topic 3.0 bank run at kaupthing forces seizure https wikileaks.org wiki financial collapse confidential exposure analysis of 205 companies each owing above % e2 % 82 % ac45m to icelandic bank kaupthing % 2c 26 sep 2008 bowers simon 2009 08 04 . confidential kaupthing corporate loan details leaked on the internet . london the guardian . retrieved 2009 08 08 . iceland s exista trading hikes stake in storebrand to 5.56 pct . afx news . forbes . 2 august 2007 . retrieved 2008 10 31 . kaupthing bank hf sells 24 % stake in vis eignarhaldsfelag hf . nordic business report . findarticles . 31 may 2006 . retrieved 2008 10 31 . young brett 7 october 2008 . sampo says exista decided to sell stake in it . reuters . retrieved 2008 10 31 . acher john 9 october 2008 . norway s gjensidige buys exista s storebrand shares . reuters . forbes . retrieved 2008 10 31 . pollard niklas 10 october 2008 . iceland s exista says to sell bakkavor stake . reuters . forbes . retrieved 2008 10 31 . power helen 11 october 2008 . uk companies locked out of landsbanki accounts . the times . london . retrieved 2008 10 31 . jjb sports sell off to ensure survival . evening standard . this is money . 14 october 2008 . retrieved 2008 10 31 . business areas investments . exista . retrieved 2008 10 31 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title exista & oldid 736434424 categories banks of icelandbanks established in 2001hidden categories official website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages slenskasuomi edit links this page was last modified on 27 august 2016 at 13 24 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and 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