1990s: the former Eastern Bloc In 1991, Thor went to
Russia along with his father and a friend,
Magnús Þorsteinsson. The Icelandic businessmen, together with Russian partners, founded the
bottling company Baltic Bottling Plant, which they sold to Pepsi. Next they founded a
brewing company, originally called ООО "Торговый дом "РОСА" and eventually registered as Bravo International JSC by December 1997. Six companies registered in Limassol, Cyprus were responsible for establishing Bravo and Björgólfur Thor was president of all of them. Bravo Brewery became the fastest-growing brewery in Russia at the time, primarily through the production of the premium beer Botchkarov.
Heineken bought the brewery for $325m in 2002. In 1999, he, along with an asset management unit from Deutsche Bank, founded Actavis, and invested in a privatisation in Bulgaria. In 2000, Russia opened an honorary consulate of Iceland in St. Petersburg. Magnús Þorsteinsson was appointed Honorary Vice-Consul, while Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson was appointed
Consul, he resigned from the position on 16 May 2006. In his book,
Billions to Bust and Back, Björgólfur Thor chronicles his time in St Petersburg, detailing how criminal elements tried to intimidate him into giving them access to his business and explaining which security measures he relied on to prevent them from doing so. By 2006, he was a celebrity for his business success, with an eight-page-long profile in the Sunday supplement of the Icelandic newspaper
Morgunblaðið written about him. Late in 2002, Thor and Björgólfur Guðmundsson's holding company Samson ehf. gained a 45% controlling share of
Landsbanki, Iceland's second largest bank, for about ISK12m in a controversial privatization. The board was announced in February 2003, with the chairman being Björgólfur Thor's father. Björgólfur Thor also became the main owner and chairman of the
Straumur Investment Bank.
Icelandic Financial Crisis Two of Björgólfur Thor’s companies, the banks
Landsbanki and
Straumur, went bankrupt following the
2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the government of Iceland assumed responsibility for them. On 6 October Landsbanki was put into receivership and liquidation, and on 9 March Straumur was nationalised by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Iceland (FME). Following the crash, Björgólfur Thor had €650m of personal guarantees. Rather than declare bankruptcy, he instead took two years to negotiate and restructure the debt with his creditors, most notably
Deutsche Bank. Björgólfur Thor was heavily criticized for his actions leading to the crisis. Two days after the publication of the Icelandic government report on the
2008 financial crisis on 12 April 2010, Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson issued a public apology in the Icelandic newspaper,
Fréttablaðið, for his role in the crisis:I the undersigned, Björgólfur Thor, request forgiveness from all Icelanders for my role in the asset- and debt-bubble that led to the collapse of the Icelandic banking system. I request your forgiveness for my complacency towards the danger signs which arose. I request forgiveness for having not succeeded in following my instincts when I realised the danger. I request your forgiveness.He defended his reputation by disputing government and journalistic criticisms of his role in the
2008 financial crisis on his website, through letters to newspapers, and through legal action. He has said that he urged the government of Iceland not to take over the banks and that he did his utmost to prevent Icelanders and the state of Iceland from having to assume responsibility. He also has asserted that as a large shareholder in a bank, one does not have as much influence as many believe and that it is the job of the bank's management and board to formulate good policy. He said that he was not a member of the board or a managing director of the bank and that his policy suggestions were ignored by the government of Iceland.
2010s: business after the crisis Before the
2008 financial crisis, Björgólfur Thor founded
Novator Partners, which he continues to manage, and which has been his main vehicle for investment since the crisis. Novator is a private equity firm with headquarters in London and offices in Luxembourg. In 2021 Novator invested $250 million into
DNEG, a visual effects company which worked on such films as
Inception,
Ex Machina and
No Time to Die. Although his fortunes were reduced by the
2008 financial crisis, leading him to cancel the construction of a £100 million luxury yacht, he continued to prosper overall. In December 2013, the website "The Automatic Earth" reported:Mr Bjorgolfsson still leads Novator Partners, a London-based investment firm, sits on several boards and holds shares in companies including Actavis, a Swiss drugmaker, and CCP, an Icelandic computer games company. His representative says any dividends from his shares, or future gains from their sale, will go towards settling debts to creditors following Landsbanki's decline.In October 2012, Watson Pharmaceuticals purchased Actavis for nearly $6 billion. Björgólfur Thor’s creditors got the first installment of $230 million. In the purchase, Björgólfur Thor took 4.3 million shares in Actavis. Those shares were eventually worth about $700 million, allowing him to pay off the rest of his debt to Icelandic creditors in 2014. In 2015, he and his father were mentioned in the
Panama Papers as having connections to at least 50 offshore companies in tax havens established through Mossack Fonseca, while in November 2017, he was named in the
Paradise Papers together with Gísli Hjálmtýsson, Róbert Guðfinnsson, and a number of Iceland's National Power Company employees. The listed companies connected to Björgólfsson were registered in Bermuda. Thor was one of the lead investors in
Atai Life Sciences AG's 2018 funding rounds. Atai Life is a healthcare investment firm that backs studies of magic mushrooms to treat depression. According to a Bloomberg report, the round Björgólfur Thor participated in raised $25 million. In 2020, he and David de Rothschild co-founded The Lost Explorer Mezcal, which is created in partnership with Maestro Mezcalero Don Fortino Ramos and his daughter. It is a sustainably crafted and Oaxacan-cultivated mezcal brand. The Lost Explorer Mezcal most recently received Double Gold (Salmiana), Gold (Espadin) and Silver (Tobala) recognition from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the most established and influential spirits competition in the world. The brand was also named Taste Master, the prestigious accolade of the best of the best across the tequila and mezcal category, in a competition hosted by The Spirits Business. == In popular culture ==