MFS owned Galaxias banned in Greece

Greek authorities banned the activities of Galaxias AEGA, the Greek subsidiary of the CSE listed MFS Group Public Co. Ltd., which is involved in the general insurance business there.

Greek Deputy Minister of Development Yiannis Papathanasiou said that the clearance of the “bad” players as he described in the insurance market started with the withdrawal of the operating license of Galaxias, Astra and Argonafti, which together had a 240.000 vehicle portfolio.

The Ministry has forwarded the cases to the equivalent of the Superintendent of Insurance in Greece requesting the cancellation of their operating licenses on the ground that all three were the subject of intense customer complaints for failing to meet claims and for unnecessary delays in the settlement of claims.

Repeated attempts by the Financial Mirror to contact MFS officials for comment proved unsuccessful as senior officers were absent. The CSE listed MFS also failed to make an announcement on the CSE on Tuesday to provide additional information to the investing community.

MFS had reported that total income from Galaxias in the first half amounted to CYP 2.7 mln out of total CYP 5.7 mln group income, while Galaxias contributed CYP 370.049 in pretax profits at a time when the Cyprus operations lost CYP 242.000, confirming its significance to the overall results of the group.

Last year, the Superintendent of Insurance in Cyprus canceled the operating license of MarkeTrends Insurance, which at the time was the MFS division responsible for general business activities in Cyprus.