Mr Viðar Lúðvíksson > Landslog – Law Offices > Reykjavik, Iceland > Lawyer Profile

Mr Viðar Lúðvíksson

(+354)5202900 vidar@landslog.is View profile View profile

Work Department

Corporate, Commercial, M&A, Contracts, Insurance and Tort.

Position

Partner at Landslog Law Offices.  Main focus on Corporate and Commercial Law, M&A, Insurance and Tort.

Recent work:

– In August 2019 Hagar hf. (Iceland´s largest retail chain and one of Iceland’s largest companies), a listed company, retained Vidar Ludviksson, partner at Landslog, to handle the prospectus and legal issues in relation to the company’s bond issue in the amount of 8 bn ISK, i.e. around 53 million GBP. The issue, which was completed in February 2020, was the first asset-backed bond issue in Iceland since the crash in 2008.

– Vidar was sole legal advisor to FAST-1 slhf. when the company signed Heads of Terms for its sale to Reginn hf. (a listed company) of two subsidiaries, which owned a significant number of real-estate in Iceland, among them one of the largest office buildings in Iceland. The enterprise value of the transaction is EUR 185,000,000, which is the largest single real-estate transaction in Iceland since the banking crash in 2008.

– Vidar advised SMI ehf. when SMI ehf. purchased all shares in Korputorg ehf., which is the owner of the Korputorg Shopping Center in Reykjavík. Korputorg is over 45 thousand square meters and is one of the largest commercial buildings in Iceland. In the fall of 2016 SMI ehf. sold all shares in Korputorg ehf. to Kristinn ehf. Vidar Ludviksson at Landslog was SMI ehf.’s sole legal advisor on both transactions (purchase and sale).

– Vidar advised Vodafone Iceland (i.e. Fjarskipti hf., which is listed on the Icelandic Nasdaq stock exchange) on the purchase of most all assets and operations (including TV content agreements with foreign providers) from 365 midlar hf. Among the purchased assets and operations are all telecom, Internet, TV and radio broadcasting operations (including the television stations Stod 2, Stod 2 Sport, Stod 3 and Biorasin Movie Channel, and the radio stations Bylgjan, FM957 and X-id) and the news and sports website visir.is.  Vidar also supervised the legal due diligence review on 365 midlar hf. and was Vodafone Iceland’s sole legal counsel in relation to the purchase agreement and other relevant documents pertaining to the transaction.  Landslog also manage the notification of the transaction to the Competition Authorities. This is the largest telecom and broadcasting asset purchase transaction ever in Iceland, with a value of around 69 million Euros.

– Vidar advised Hagar hf. (which is listed on the Icelandic Nasdaq stock exchange and which is Iceland’s largest retailer) on the purchase of all shares in the oil company Oliuverzlun Islands hf. The value of the deal is around 133 million Euros.  Landslog also carried out the due diligence review of the target and manage the notification of the transaction to the Competition Authorities.  The deal is considered a landmark in M&A deals in Iceland and marks the potential beginning of retailers moving into the gas and oil market in Iceland, as several similar (but much smaller deals) followed.

– English insurers hired Vidar Ludviksson to handle claims made against them under D&O policies purchased by Landsbanki Islands hf., which entered under winding-up proceedings following the banking crash in 2008.  The ongoing cases (which were lodged in 2011 and 2012) are landmark cases with regard to D&O insurance practice in Iceland and are among the largest and most complex in Icelandic civil procedure. They have been followed closely by the U.K. insurance market.

Vidar has provided legal services for several foreign companies and law firms, such as Apple Inc., Barlow, Lyde and Gilbert LLP and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, USA.  Vidar has also worked with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, London, on numerous issues, many of which pertain to the administration of Heritable bank and Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander in England.  Vidar was in the team of three attorneys at Landslog hired by the Ministry of Finance in 2009 to assist in the restructuring of the “new” Icelandic banks and to assist in the negotiations between the “old” banks and the newly incorporated state-owned banks on the compensation for the transferred assets and liabilities.

Career

Partner at Landslog Law Offices.  Managing partner 2005-2006.
Lecturer at the Icelandic Bar Exam. Lecturer at the Law Faculty of the Reykjavik University.  Vice Chairman of the Appeals Committee of Electricity (Ministry of Industry and Innovation).  Board member of Sendafelagid ehf. (Chairman 2015-2018).

Languages

Icelandic, English, Danish.

Memberships

Icelandic Bar Association, Supreme Court Attorney.

Education

University of Iceland, cand. jur. 1997.  Studied at the Law Faculty of the University of Aarhus, Denmark, in 1996.  Stanford Law School, LL.M. (Corporate Governance and Practice) 2007.

Leisure

Photography, traveling, hiking, bicycling.