Marfin will not improve Cytrustees offer

Marfin Popular Bank does not intend to improve its EUR 2.43 per share bid offer for Cytrustees Investments Pcl (CYTR) following the massive increase in the bid offer submitted by Bank of Cyprus Pcl, which improved its offer for the investment company to EUR 2.45 per share from its previous EUR 2.25 per share price.

“There is no war between us (Marfin) and Bank of Cyprus,” said MPB CEO Andreas Vgenopoulos during a press conference on the occasion of the announcement of the 2006 results by MPB.

He said the Bank felt that the bid offer made by BOC was “too low and far away from the indicated price set by the CYTR Board, which led us to make a counter bid.”

Bank of Cyprus is reported to have purchased a 15% stake in Cytrustees at EUR 2.45 in cash from Universal Life Insurance Pcl. The combined direct and indirect stake of Bank of Cyprus now is about 22%.