Aspis launches bid for Universal Bank

Aspis Group of Greece, together with Commercial Value (a related company) have submitted their interest to bid for 60% control of the share capital of Universal Bank (USB) at 90 cent per share in cash, in a deal valued at CYP 8.17 mln.

The decision was taken following board decisions taken on August 7, 2006. Based on the 15.12 mln listed shares of USB, the 60% bid at 90 cent is valued by Financial Mirror estimates at CYP 8.17 mln and is at a 10% premium to the most recent price of USB trading on the CSE and 28.5% premium compared to the 70 cent book value of USB.

The submission of the bid also comes at a time when the CEO of Universal Life Insurance, holding 60% of the capital of USB had told a daily newspaper of his surprise at the intention of Aspis to bid for the Bank. The deal is also counter to another bid pending and awaited from a Cyprus based German shipping consortium that is also interested to wrest control of USB and appears to be favoured by the UL Board, which previously had backed the German bid.

The latter bid never got off the ground after the Central Bank of Cyprus refused to grant permission for the takeover to proceed.