— Odella Resources is biggest shareholder with nearly 10% —
Odella Resources Ltd., an unknown investor group registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has become the single largest shareholder in Bank of Cyprus, the island’s biggest lender after it bought 45.3 mln shares or 7.5% of the share capital from the bank’s staff provident funds.
The mystery buyer will now control nearly 10% of the bank’s shares, to be diluted to just below 9% when an upcoming rights issue hits the market.
Odella Resources purchased the 45.3 mln shares in two negotiated deals transacted on the Cyprus Stock Exchange on Tuesday at a price of EUR 4.90 per share for a total value of EUR 222 mln. The negotiated price is at a 22.5% premium compared to the EUR 4/share price of Bank of Cyprus prevailing on the CSE the day before. The group is also reported to have bought a further 424,213 shares through the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), where BOC is also listed at an average price of EU 4.066 per share.
Contacted by the Financial Mirror to determine the true identity of the buyers, a Bank of Cyprus spokesman sufficed to say that they were “a Cypriot Trust registered in the BVI”.
Bank of Cyprus issued an official announcement stating that the reason for the bank’s staff provident funds selling the shares was to conform with new legislation forbidding such funds from holding stakes larger than 5% in their mother companies.
“The staff provident fund’s stake in BOC is thus reduced from 7.6% to 0.1% following the negotiated deal,” the bank announcement said.
The bank has further been informed that Odella Resources has agreed to buy 29.4 mln nil paid rights when trading begins at the price of EUR 0.8286 (based on the negotiated price of EUR 4.90/share), which represent a further 8.4 mln new shares.
Odella Resources is now believed to be holding 58,596,580 shares of Bank of Cyprus, which represent 9.7% of the bank’s share capital. Following the rights issue, the stake will decline to 8.98%, according to estimates.
Earlier, the Provident Fund of the Cyprus Popular Bank Public Company Limited Employees and its subsidiaries disposed of 15.5 mln shares, or 1.8% of the share capital of Marfin Popular Bank at a price of EUR 1.60 per share for the same reason but transacted the sale in a transparent method of offering the shares through a public tender and after they received permission from the CySEC.
The provident fund of the employees of Hellenic Bank is also reported to be proceeding with measures to reduce its stake in the bank’s capital and to conform to the new legislation.
