The US investor Michele Roosevelt Edwards, who is working on resurrection of collapsed low-cost WOW air, is now reviewing her legal position following the rejection of her offer in Icelandair’s share offering, which ended last week, Frettablaðið reported.
Her lawyer in Iceland Páll Ágúst Ólafsson believes that she was discriminated during the auction and that factors other than financial interests probably determined the offer. It attracted a lot of attention when Michele Roosevelt Edwards came to Iceland last week to take part in the auction. Her offer amounted to ISK 7 billion, but on Friday the media reported that the board of Icelandair had rejected Michele Roosevelt Edwards’s offer.
Páll Ágúst says in an interview with Fréttablaðið that it is not even possible to say that Michele Roosevelt Edwards’s offer has been rejected: “That was simply not answered. I dare say that the other seven thousand participants in the tender were not required to provide the same proof of financing as she did.”
He added: “I think that this has both had an effect on the fact that my client has opinions on aviation operations and has commented on what she thinks can be done better with the company, and possibly the company’s representatives do not think that its large shareholders have such opinions. We were simply not given any scope to demonstrate our ability to pay, and under cover of night after the auction ended, it was simply thrown out, if you can mark what we read in the media the next morning.”
Last week, the board of Icelandair rejected the offer of Michele Roosevelt Edwards. Her offer was ISK 7 billion. According to Fréttablaðið sources, she could not provide sufficient collateral to confirm that she had funds available to be able to afford the purchase.
