House of Fraser, Iceland and Hamleys' holding company placed into administration- PwC called in

Tony Lomas and Zelf Hussain have been called in by the bankers of Baugur as
administrators to the holding company for Hamleys, House of Fraser and Iceland.

Landsbanki decided to parachute in the pair after talks regarding a possible
restructuring of the Icelandic retail giant’s £1bn of debt failed.

The nationalised bank said: ‘Landsbanki yesterday filed a petition to place
BG Holding ehf into administration under English law, nominating Tony Lomas and
Zelf Hussain of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to act as joint administrators of BG
Holding ehf.

‘The underlying assets of BG Holding ehf comprise a variety of shareholdings
in Iceland Foods Group Limited, Highland Group Holdings Limited (House of
Fraser), Corporal Limited (Hamleys of London) and Aurum Group. These companies
are unaffected by the petition and continue under the control of their
respective management teams.’

The decision was taken by Landsbanki’s Resolution Committee after discussions
with the Baugur Group ‘did not produce any acceptable proposals, so we have
taken steps to protect these valuable assets.’

‘We intend to work with management of the companies to maximise the long-term
value for all stakeholders. This move is designed to preserve the stability and
protect the value of the companies concerned,’ the Resolution committee added.