(Bloomberg) Iceland’s new prime minister, Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, said his government plans to go ahead with auctions intended to unwind offshore krona holdings whether hedge funds agree to participate or not. Roughly a week after his predecessor was ousted following revelations of private offshore accounts, Johannsson, 53, has little room for error as he tries to guide Iceland through the final steps of unwinding the capital controls that have been in place since 2008.
The country’s next step is a currency auction to free about $2.4 billion held by investors in so-called Glacier bonds — kronur-denominated notes sold outside Iceland until its 2008 financial collapse. The auction is designed to prevent a krona sell-off when the controls are finally removed. The central bank has signaled that early summer is its target for the transactions.
