Marfin stake in Laiki at 15.17%

Marfin Financial Group announced that as of November 3, 2006, its stake in Laiki Bank has increased to 54.232.852 shares for a 15.17% stake in the Bank following the purchase of 3.081.882 shares from the CSE.

Marfin FG has permission from the Central Bank of Cyprus to lift its stake in Laiki Bank to 19.99%, before the merger process together with Egnatia. After the triple merger is finalized by the end of December, Marfin will have to offload more than 100 mln shares of the new entity Marfin Popular Bank to other institutional investors, otherwise by Cyprus law it will have to cancel them.