XL directors take secret Viking stake
British holidaymakers could fly this summer with airline owned by executives besieged by creditors
By Simon Evans
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Directors of the collapsed XL Leisure Group, which fell into administration last September leaving thousands of passengers stranded, have emerged as backers of Viking Airlines, a firm that will fly British passengers to and from the Continent this summer.
Less than six months after XL founder Phil Wyatt was filmed crying on TV, amid the collapse of the firm with debts of more than £100m, his new business Black Pearl Investments, named after Johnny Depp's ship in Pirates of the Caribbean, has taken a 50 per cent stake in Viking through its Icelandic operation, BPI Iceland Ltd.
Alongside Wyatt, Halldor Sigurdarson, XL's former finance director, and former XL director Magnus Stephensen, are backers of the new investment firm behind Viking.