Cyprus Aspis blocked from Swedish stake

Aspis Holdings Public Company Ltd (ASP) announced that the Swedish supervisory authority (FSA) rejected since May 22, 2008 its application to participate in Aspis Liv Forsakrings AB. The company made the announcement following a request by the CySEC.
According to the announcement, the reason for the rejection was the information provided by the Insurance Superintendent of Cyprus, which informed the Swedish FSA that the former had rejected the Company’s request acquire a stake in Universal Life Insurance, for not meeting all necessary guarantees for the participation. According to EU directives, information received must be based on other competent authorities of the EU member states and as a result, the Swedish authority could not ignore the information received by the Insurance Superintendent.
Aspis Holdings said that on November 24, 2008 the Supreme Court of Cyprus vindicated the Company in the case of Universal Life, stressing that the Superintendent’s stance is “contradictory and unacceptable”. Meanwhile, in order to protect its interests, the Company has renewed its contract with Aspis Capital SA and Aspis Pronoia AEGA so that the transfer of shares of Aspis Liv Forsakrings AB can be carried out by June 30, 2009 and the Company has time to submit a new request to the Swedish authorities (either itself or via a company that it will point out).