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Rescued Icelandic bank buys West Ham United

Published 06/08/2009, 06:17 AM
Updated 06/08/2009, 06:24 AM

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - CB Holding, a unit of Iceland's bailed out Straumur-Burdaras bank, has acquired English Premier League club West Ham United for an undisclosed sum, the club said on Monday.

Andrew Bernhardt, a senior director at Straumur, will become West Ham's new non-executive chairman, the club said.

"Change is always unsettling, but I believe the new owners led by Andrew Bernhadt will bring stability to West Ham United," said West Ham Chief Executive Officer Scott Duxbury.

The takeover follows the collapse of the business empire of former owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, who bought West Ham in 2006 for about 85 million pounds ($135 million) and who had borrowed heavily from the Icelandic bank.

The future of Straumur is also in the hands of its creditors after Iceland's financial authorities took it over in March.

Straumur was a major lender to Hansa, Gudmundsson's holding company that owned West Ham, and the bank is currently working out a financial restructuring deal with its lenders.

On Friday Straumur asked its creditors for a six-month delay in servicing and repaying its debt to have more time to secure an agreement with lenders.

Straumur hopes creditors will approve a managed work-out of the bank's assets by the existing management. The alternative is a distressed sale of assets, the bank said. ($1=.6293 Pound) (Reporting by Tom Freke; editing by Simon Jessop)

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