Disgruntled shareholders of Laiki Bank (CPB) who are opposed to the merger got a poor reception when they gathered at the Hilton Friday afternoon, not only because of the few number of people attending the meeting, but also because their arguments against the merger were not convincing.
Nicosia Hilton’s Ballroom A was near empty if the journalists and the persons not holding Laiki shares are to be excluded, leaving a handful of 40-50 disgruntled shareholders to complain about everything.
“We want to be informed about all the aspects of the deal,” said a spokesman for the group, who quickly added that “the deal is not fair and is against the interests of shareholders.”
Asked by a journalist present at the meeting on how the group could express an opinion against the deal if they had limited information to base their argument, the group could not give a reasonable response.
The Cyprus SEC also drew heavy criticism for failing to force the Laiki Board to present a prospectus. Stelios Bekris, a self-styled investor and also owner of Unigrowth Investments said the SEC had obliged him to issue a prospectus for a 200.000 rights issue, yet in his words, “they are allowing Laiki to get away with the largest takeover without one.”
Nobody at the meeting bothered to recall a previous statement made by Marfin Vice-Chairman and Laiki Board member Andreas Vgenopoulos who faced with the same question at a press conference last Wednesday had said that the non-publication of a prospectus was due to the fact that according to Greek Capital Markets regulations, such information cannot be provided at this stage of the deal.
BOC Board member Evdokimos Xenophontos was also among people insisting that a prospectus should be issued before the deal is voted on.
Alkis Hadjikyriakos (Frou-Frou) then read a long list of questions that he had submitted to Laiki in writing but for which he had not received a response, adding that if the motion is passed, he would sell his shares. Market sources say he holds a total of 500.000 shares.
Reliable sources reckon that the combined selling power of the opposing camp is well below 4 mln shares (including the stake of Polys Polycarpou), an amount that can easily be absorbed by Marfin, if the shares were to be dumped en-masse to distort the up-momentum of the stock, which on Friday closed at a fresh record high of CYP 3.49 on 1.8 mln shares volume, a new record for Laiki.
Other people who spoke against the merger included Polys Polycarpou, Doros Orphanides, Stephanos Hailis and one or two small investors.
None of those who spoke against the merger expressed their personal interest. There was also no explanation given as to who paid for the rental of the meeting, or the advertisements that were splashed in daily newspapers.
