Supreme Court Plenum annuls intermediate order in MPB case

The Supreme Court Plenum decided on Wednesday unanimously to annul the intermediate order issued by the Supreme Court on 25 January 2007 in the case of Marfin Popular Bank, saying that the First Instance Court was wrong in its decision.
According to a Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission press release, the Commission’s decision of 16 January 2007 continues to be in force after Wednesday’s ruling.
The Commission had decided on 16 January that the move by Marfin Popular Bank Ltd to submit public offers for the acquisition of Bank of Cyprus and Piraeus Bank constituted a potential violation of regulation 21 of the Cyprus Stock Exchange regulations of mergers and acquisition, and had imposed a fine of 10,000 Cyprus pounds (one pound is trading at approximately 1.72 euros) on Marfin Popular Bank.
The Supreme Court, in its temporary decree, had said that the Commission had no jurisdiction to judge that Marfin Popular Bank was guilty.
Marfin Popular Bank launched a takeover bid for Piraeus Bank, Greece‘s fourth largest lender, and the Bank of Cyprus in early January.
But its tenders, launched a day after Piraeus Bank’s bid for Marfin Popular Bank, were ruled invalid by the Commission because of the controversy surrounding which of the two made the first move.