Welcome to Iceland Guest - Your Online Travel Guide.

Iceland Guest is an information website for your travel to Iceland. On this site you can get all the tourist information you need for your vacation in Iceland. We hope that you will find this online travel guide useful in planning your holidays in Iceland.

About Iceland
Iceland is a refreshingly unconventional travel destination. The Icelandic nature is unspoilt, exotic and mystical with its spouting geysers, active volcanoes, tumbling waterfalls, towering mountains, vast lava plains and magical lakes. Iceland’s fjords, glaciers and highland plains present visitors with some of the most beautiful and enchanting places they will ever see, as well as a rare feeling of utter tranquillity.

For travelers on a quest for action, Iceland’s pristine nature offers great potential for outdoor activities such as snowmobiling, horse riding, cave exploring, hiking, swimming, skiing, river rafting, kayaking and mountain safaris on modified four-wheel drives, to name but a few. Iceland supports a surprisingly diverse Nordic flora and fauna and is an ideal place for ornithology enthusiasts, while also offering some of the world’s best whale watching destinations.

About Reykjavik
Reykjavík sometimes feels like a cosmopolitan capital and a tiny seaside village - all wrapped up in one. But Reykjavík has the best of both worlds; the qualities of a modern, forward-looking society complemented by a close connection to Iceland‚s beautiful and unspoilt nature.

Reykjavík’s legendary nightlife is bolstered by plentiful cultural and social happenings in addition to an abundance of first-class restaurants. The size of Reykjavik city centre is also limited enough to allow for easy navigation by foot. Reykjavík has been described as a young and daring city that is characterized by strong contrasts. Conveniently small, clean and safe, it is more or less free from the major problems that haunt many other capitals. Big city events are frequent, the winter lights festival finished recently with thousands of participants and more tourist at this time of the year than we are used to.

in Focus

25.7.2007

Kaupthing Bank's Results for the First Half of 2007

Kaupthing Bank has announced its results for the first half of 2007. Net earnings of ISK 46.8 billion (EUR 533 million).

In brief:

Shareholders' net earnings increased by 43.8% to ISK 45.8 billion in 1H
Return on equity in first half of 32.0% on an annualised basis. Earnings per share of ISK 62.2 during the first half - compared with ISK 47.9 in same period of 2006
Shareholders' net earnings in Q2 up 95.5% to ISK 25.5 billion (EUR 294.7 million)
Operating income in Q2 increased by 66.8% to ISK 51.8 billion
Net interest income in Q2 up by 38.0% to ISK 19.8 billion
Net fee and commission income in Q2 grew by 65.4% to ISK 15.2 billion
Operating expenses in Q2 rose by 28.5% to ISK 19.0 billion
Cost/income ratio in Q2 was 36.7%
Kaupthing Bank booked ISK 4.3 billion profit from the sale of its subsidiary Eik fasteignafélag hf. during Q2
Total assets of ISK 4,570.4 billion (EUR 54.3 billion) at the end of June 2007, increasing by 23.3% at a fixed exchange rate from the beginning of the year and by 12.7% in ISK

Hreidar Már Sigurdsson, CEO
"Kaupthing Bank went from strength to strength during the second quarter and all the Bank's main offices produced solid results. The vigorous growth of fee and commission income and net interest income was a key feature of the second quarter. The increase in deposits at the Bank is a source of particular satisfaction, and deposits now represent 46% of loans to customers. We have put considerable effort into building our businesses in the UK, and we have seen a complete turnaround at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. The performance of all our main business segments has exceeded our expectations. The Bank's pipeline is robust and the outlook for the rest of the year is positive."

Further information
For further information on the results please contact Jónas Sigurgeirsson, Chief Communications Officer on +354 444 6112 or Ólöf Hildur Pálsdóttir, Deputy Head of Investor Relations, on +354 444 6569 (ir@kaupthing.com). Information on Kaupthing Bank is also available on the Bank's website www.kaupthing.com

About Kaupthing Bank
Kaupthing Bank is a northern European bank offering integrated financial services to companies, institutional investors and individuals. These services include corporate banking, investment banking, capital markets services, asset management and comprehensive wealth management for private banking clients. The Bank operates in ten countries, including all the Nordic countries, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK and the US. In addition the Bank operates a retail franchise in Iceland, where it is headquartered.

Kaupthing Bank is currently among the seven largest banks in the Nordic region in terms of market capitalization. Through sound organic growth and strategic acquisitions like the UK bank Singer & Friedlander in 2005 and FIH Erhvervsbank in Denmark in 2004, Kaupthing Bank has fortified its position to provide outstanding services to its client base in the UK, the Nordic countries and elsewhere in northern Europe. The Bank has 2,970 employees and total assets of EUR 54.3 billion (as of 30 June 2007).

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