About 40 Greek fund managers and analysts had the opportunity to hear detailed presentations made by 14 CSE listed companies of their present status and prospects, organized and hosted by CISCO and Bank of Cyprus Pcl.
The briefing entitled “Common Platform and Cypriot Companies” was addressed by Bank of Cyprus CEO Andreas Eliades, CSE Chairman Akis Cleanthous, ATHEX Vice Chairman Socratis Lazarides, Greek Capital Markets Vice-Chairman Yiangos Charalambous, Cyprus SEC Vice Chairman Akis Hadjipieris as well as greetings by the Chairman of Cyprus EPEY Christodoulos Ellinas and from the Greek Union of Institutional Investors.
During his opening remarks at the investor briefing, Eliades said the common trading platform with ATHEX does not only connect the two stock exchanges, the listed companies and the investors from both Cyprus and Greece, but it also the basis to merge the two economies, a process which will accelerate from January 1, 2008 when Cyprus will adopt the euro as its currency.
Anna Sofroniou Vafeades, General Manager at CISCO, the Investment Banking arm of Bank of Cyprus who came up with the idea and organized the event said about 40 Greek fund managers and representatives of major Greek institutions heard detailed investment briefings by 14 CSE listed companies on December 1 and 2, 2006.
“The idea came up when during discussions held in Greece, it emerged that the majority of Greek fund managers had no particular knowledge of CSE listed companies, with the exception of Bank of Cyprus, which is listed on the ATHEX and recently entered the FTSE 20 in Athens,” Sofroniou-Vafeades told the Financial Mirror.
Investor presentations by order of presentation were made by Louis, Bank of Cyprus, Options Cassoulides, SFS Group, A. Zorbas & Sons, Logicom, Cyprus Trading Corp., Ermes Department Stores, Woolworth (
Sofroniou-Vafeades said all those who took part in the event expressed their utmost satisfaction at the initiative taken by CISCO and BOC, which gave Greek fund managers a unique opportunity to meet and hear the prospects of CSE companies as well as for CSE listed CEO’s and Managers to explain their case to fund managers and drum up interest for their stocks.
Some of the Greek fund management companies present at the conference included P&K, Omega, Eurobank, Dias, Global, ALICO AIG, Marfin, Ermis, Inrerinvest, Alpha Trust, Alpha, Euroline, Altius, Attici, TT Elta, ING, Aspis, HSBC and more.
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Lack of knowledge
Greek fund managers had very limited information about CSE listed companies and with the exception of Bank of Cyprus and to a lesser extent, Marfin Popular Bank, the event was their first encounter with Cypriot companies.
Greek fund managers were keen to understand the share structure of the companies making the presentations, their free float/majority shareholders, the competition in Cyprus, strategic development plans, expansion plans and if the companies had a presence in Greece. Other questions involved if
As was usual to expect, Bank of Cyprus was the centre of attraction while Greek fund managers were keen to hear the future targets of Marfin Popular Bank, with a senior official promising to deliver such targets before the end of December.
Logicom, Tsokkos, Woolworth, CTC, Louis, Zorbas and Orfanides were some of the companies that caught the attention of Greek fund managers. Logicom excelled because of its wide cooperation agreements with multinational giants such as Microsoft, Intel and CISCO Systems to name a few and its fast expansion drive overseas. Tsokkos scored well because of its diversification plan into becoming a property development company, which was also one of the reasons why fund managers were receptive to Woolworth.
Louis and again Tsokkos were also liked because of their exposure to the hotel sector, since it appears that not many Greek hotel chains are listed on the ATHEX, with Louis scoring well because of its expansion drive overseas, including the organization of Greek cruises.
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