BOC & Georghiou await court ruling

Bank of Cyprus and the CEO of Universal Life Andreas Georghiou will be anxiously awaiting word from the presiding judge on Wednesday regarding the fate of the injunction order, ordering BOC to stop all negotiations for the sale of its stake in UL to Aspis of Greece.

BOC put up a solid resistance during the first hearing on Friday on the injunction order that Georghiou secured last Monday, ordering BOC to freeze all negotiations to sell its 28% stake in UL to Aspis for CYP 7.3 mln.

BOC insisted that Georghiou did not exercise his first option to purchase the shares, as well as the fact that he could not provide sufficient documentation according to which his bid would get a favourable response from the Central Bank or from the Superintendent of Insurance.

The presiding judge decided to postpone the further discussion of the interim order until Wednesday July 13.

BOC and Laiki have joined forces and wish to sell their combined stakes amounting to 28% and 35% respectively in UL to Aspis of Greece for a total of CYP 16.5 mln, of which CYP 7.3 mln will go to BOC. Georghiou meanwhile, fearing that he will be left as a minority shareholder at the mercy of Aspis, has decided to fight the bid and has lined up so-called bid interests from the Lithuanian Snoras Bank and the ship management group Columbia. which have expressed an interest to purchase the group’s banking subsidiary, Universal Bank.