PLAY's largest shareholders to submit takeover offer

PLAY announced (10-Jun-2025) CEO Einar Örn Ólafsson and vice chairman Elías Skúli Skúlason stated their interest in submitting a voluntary takeover offer for all shares in PLAY, via the special purpose vehicle BBL 212. The offeror obtained financing in the amount of USD7 million which is in the form of equity as well as borrowings. The offeror intends to seek a delisting of shares on Nasdaq Iceland. The offeror's planned strategy for PLAY includes the following:

• Build on PLAY's 3Q2024 shift towards leisure markets and lease operation by implementing significant operational changes;
• Focus on keeping costs at an absolute minimum. To support this goal, the majority of operations will be relocated to Malta and Lithuania, to optimise costs and leverage the availability of skilled resources;
• Surrender its Icelandic air operator certificate (AOC) and transfer remaining aircraft to Malta;
• Continue to cater to the Icelandic leisure market through its virtual airline with four aircraft, the remaining six aircraft will be leased out and operated through PLAY's lease platform;
• Discontinue North America flights from Oct-2025, ending the hub and spoke portion of the network;
• Reduce offer of flights from Iceland to Northern European cities;
• PLAY Iceland will continue to focus on leisure travel and plans to further expand this segment of the network;
• PLAY's own production is expected to require four aircraft, with the possibility to scale up as demand grows, which will be leased from its sister company in Malta. [more - original PR]