Cyprus turns to Big 4 to assess Coops

The Finance Minister will select one of the big four international audit firms to carry out a fair value assessment of the Cooperative Institutions, one of the conditions of the €1.5 bln injection provided by the Troika of international lenders to cover the estimated capital shortfall, with the state acquired 99% of the Coops share capital.
The Finance Ministry issued a call to the "big four" audit firms (KPMG, PWC, EY and Deloitte) to express interest for a fair value assessment of the Cooperative Central Bank (CCB) and its member credit institutions.
The applications were submitted last Wednesday and the firm to carry out the assessment will be selected next week with the agreement of the Central Bank of Cyprus.
The assessment’s aim is to determine the participation of the state to the CCB capital and its voting rights.
The €1.5 bln, disbursed by Eurogroup following the first review of the Cypriot adjustment programme at the end of July, have been deposited in a special account in the Central Bank and will be distributed to the Coops following the approval of their restructuring plan by the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition.
The Coops began a merger process that will see the number of cooperative credit institutions decline from 93 to 18, while the Independent Commission on the Future of Banking in Cyprus even suggested all merging into one and listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange.