Alaska-based Arctic investment firm to buy Iceland telecom company

By Annie Zak, Alaska Dispatch News October 17, 2016
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An Anchorage-based, Arctic-focused private equity firm just announced its first Icelandic investment.

Pt Capital Advisors, a subsidiary of investment firm Pt Capital, said in a news release that it has reached an agreement with investment firm Novator to buy all shares of Nova, a telecommunications company in Iceland.

The deal is expected to be finalized in the next few months, the firm said in a news release. Pt Capital Advisors did not disclose a sale price.

From left to right, Mead Treadwell, Liv Bergthorsdottir, Thor Bjorgulfsson and Hugh Short at the purchase of Icelandic telecommunications company Nova by Alaska-based Arctic investment firm Pt Capital Advisors on Oct. 7, 2016. (Courtesy Pt Capital)
From left to right, Mead Treadwell, Liv Bergthorsdottir, Thor Bjorgulfsson and Hugh Short at the purchase of Icelandic telecommunications company Nova by Alaska-based Arctic investment firm Pt Capital Advisors on Oct. 7. (Courtesy Pt Capital)

Hugh Short, CEO and chairman of Pt Capital, said the firm was interested in Nova — a mobile services provider with 34 percent of the market share in Iceland, Short said — because of its potential to continue to grow.

“Communications networks are among the net beneficiaries as far as economic activity” in the Arctic, Short said. “We believe it makes a strong investment case because of the necessary role telecom plays in every aspect of our lives today.”

Pt Capital Advisors manages just over $125 million, Short said. The firm also has investments in Alaska, he said, but wouldn’t specify what those investments are.

Nova currently has about 140 employees, all in Iceland, Short said.

Pt Capital was founded in 2013 and focuses on investments in Alaska, Iceland, Greenland and Canada. This is the first investment Pt Capital Advisors has publicly disclosed, and it doesn’t currently have any investments in Greenland or Canada, Short said.

Alice Rogoff, the publisher of Alaska Dispatch News, is a nonpaid senior adviser for Pt Capital and a shareholder.