Bank of Cyprus announced that the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the supplementary prospectus which is related with the prospectus for the retail offer to raise a further €100 mln from the market and the applications to re-listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange and the Athens Exchange, which will resume on Tuesday, December 16.
The offer for the fresh capital, in addition to the €1bln raised from strategic and existing shareholders in August, opens on Monday, December 16 and will close on January 9, 2015.
The supplementary prospectus is available at the bank’s investor relations section on the website www.bankofcyprus.com , as well as from Lead Manager CISCO at www.cisco.bankofcyprus.com , the CSE at www.cse.com.cy , ATHEX at www.helex.gr and CySEC www.cysec.gov.cy .
The bank will re-list on both bourses after a 21-month absence with 8.9 bln new and old shares opening at 24c, the value offered to all strategic and retail investors. Most of the relisted shares are new titles split between the bailed-in depositors from last year and the strategic investors.
Bailed-in depositors, who saw 47.5% of their unsecured savings above EUR 100,000 exchanged for equity, will likely be among the first sellers, in order to pay down personal debts or even guarantees provided to the bank itself, which in the absence of market liquidity has been extremely stringent in providing new facilities.
On the other hand, investors keen to “average up” their portfolios, many of whom saw their pre-2013 holdings reduced to less than 1%, could be on the sidelines, looking for buying opportunities, as a stock support mechanism has not been put in place by the bank or its trading arm, CISCO.
The 8,904,425,940 new ordinary shares include the 3,873,269,066 issued to bailed-in depositors, 5,781,443 issued to junior bond owners who also saw their holdings converted to equity, 4,166,666,667 issued to strategic investors who subscribed to the EUR 1 bln capital increase and 858,708,764 issued to ‘Legacy Laiki’, the defunct Cyprus Popular Bank under state administration.
