Icelandic

"The newsreader spoke of major embezzlement and fraud, and by the end it seemed as though he had recited half of the penal law. The report said they had been arrested and would be kept in isolation for six weeks. Six weeks in solitary confinement? That day was a slap in the face, just as shocking to me as the one my mother had given my father 13 years before. Again it signalled a breach of trust, this time between the Icelandic establishment, me and my family. I knew I didn’t want to be part of the system in this country. But another thing struck me as I sat there in front of the TV. I felt I was now responsible for the family and realised I had to grow up overnight."

"This became more difficult when I made the move from business operator to investor. I started this diversification before selling my Russian operations, and in 2000 an investor road show was held for a deal that I was doing in Iceland. There was a morning meeting with Icelandic bankers and analysts and all the relevant business executives. We asked if there were any questions and after two minutes of silence, one of the analysts said: ‘Thor, how was the mafia in Russia?’ I had to spend time telling him that I really didn’t come into contact with it much. During my ten years in Russia, I reckon that the proportion of my time spent having to deal with mafia-related issues was less than 2 per cent. Nevertheless, it is not the sort of thing that twitchy lawyers, accountants, bankers and regulators want to have to think about when dealing with investments."

"When it made this partial exit, Deutsche Bank had been in the investment for 18 months and made a fivefold return. Pharmaco staged a road show for Icelandic investors and pension funds, taking about 30 of them to see the assets in Bulgaria. They were as happy as calves let out to pasture in the spring. No one in Iceland had done anything like this before. It went fantastically well and the fundraising and relisting were highly successful."