Claim against Kaupthing hf
It has been confirmed to us that the company's claim against
Kaupthing hf has been referred to the District Court of Reykjavik
for a decision. Our claim is one of the first to be referred to
Court by the Winding Up Committee, however, we understand that the
claim processes for the two other main Icelandic banks, Glitnir and
Landsbanki, are running ahead of Kaupthing, so the Courts already
have a large number of claims to hear. We have not yet been
notified of a date for the hearing, nor have we been notified of
the date by which our submission should be filed. However, in the
meantime we are continuing to accumulate evidence to support our
claim, which will be pursued vigorously in Court. It has been
indicated to us that it is likely to be late 2010 or early 2011
before the Court issues its decision on our claim. Both sides will
have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of Iceland, the
timetable for such an appeal is not clear but, if an appeal were
made, it could easily be another year before a final decision would
be handed down.
The Winding Up Committee has received over 27,000 claims, of
which only 417 have been agreed so far. Approximately 3,400 claims
have been wholly or partially rejected (including ours), 13,000 are
in dispute as to the priority of claim and a decision has been held
over on a further 9,500. They have so far received 297 objections
to their decisions.
The Winding Up Committee have indicated that they will not be in
a position to make any distributions until substantially all cases
referred to Court have been decided upon. This is frustrating,
however it does make sense given the high volume of claims which
are in dispute either over the amount of claim or the level of
priority. The Chairman of the Winding Up Committee stated that this
could take "three to four years" before the first distributions are
made to creditors.
Agreement of creditors' claims
Any creditors who have not yet submitted a claim, either
directly or through the Depositors Compensation Scheme, are asked
to submit their claims as soon as possible to ensure that they
receive the distributions to which they are entitled.
Contacts
As previously, the best way to make contact is to write to the
bank or email branch@singers.co.im. If you
need to telephone the bank, please use the main switchboard number
+44 1624 699222.
Mike Simpson
Joint Liquidator