Kaupþing banki hf. - Company Announcement

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al-Thani acquires 5% stake in Kaupthing Bank

Q Iceland Finance ehf., a wholly owned subsidiary of Q Iceland
Holding ehf., a company owned by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Khalifa Al-Thani, has acquired a 5.01% stake in Kaupthing Bank hf. Q
Iceland Finance acquired 37.1 million existing shares at the price of
ISK 690 per share, thus becoming the third largest shareholder of
Kaupthing.

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed is a member of the royal family which has been
the governing family of Qatar since the nineteenth century.

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed:"We have followed Kaupthing closely for some time and consider
this to be a good investment. Kaupthing's position is strong and we
believe in the bank's strategy and management team, as Kaupthing has
performed well in the current market turbulence and has proven it can
change and adapt to a new reality in banking. We view our stake in
Kaupthing as a long-term investment and look forward to a close
relationship with the bank in the future."

Sigurdur Einarsson, Chairman:"We are delighted to welcome H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa
Al-Thani as a shareholder of Kaupthing Bank. We are continually
focused on attracting new investors to the bank and we are happy to
see that our strategy of increasing the diversity of our shareholder
base has proven fruitful. We look forward to working with H.H. Sheikh
Mohammed in the future."


For further information please contact:
Jónas Sigurgeirsson, Chief Communications Officer, +354 444 6112 or
ir@kaupthing.com