Glitnir Bank to open New York Office

Nordic investment bank Glitnir has unveiled plans to establish an office in New York - its first in the US. The new office will provide the backbone to the corporate bank´s North American operations and will particularly aid Glitnir’s current US business drive into the sustainable energy and food manufacturing sectors. The rapidly expanding Nordic bank has already made several acquisitions worldwide since 2004. Glitnir now has offices in the UK, Canada, China and Luxembourg as well as all the Scandinavian countries. The bank’s growth has not only been fast territorially – in 2006

Glitnir posted record profits of 435 million Euros, a doubling from the previous year with an equivalent of almost 40% return on equity.

Using its teams of specialist bankers, Glitnir boasts strong niche expertise in the areas of food processing (esp. seafood), renewable energy (esp. geothermal) and offshore supply vessels. It has already shown firm interest in investing in US geothermal energy projects during the West Coast Geothermal Finance and Development Workshop which took place in May. “The US market is extremely attractive for us”, said Glitnir’s Executive Vice President, Magnús Bjarnason. “Our experience and capital mean that we are poised to be the investor and trusted advisor of choice in the ‘new frontier’ of geothermal energy in the United States”. The Nordic bank´s experience in the fast-expanding renewable energy sector, facilitated by the new outpost in New York, should enable Glitnir to turn its US investments into profits within the next few years. The geothermal energy market in the US is currently valued at between USD 1.3 billion (EUR 1.0) and USD 1.7 billion (EUR 1.3) a year and is growing. Glitnir also offer services in asset management, stock trade, real estate finance and retail, corporate & investment banking.