Piraeus Bank buys 18% stake in Atlantic Insurance Cyprus

Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) has secured the agreement of three principle shareholders of Atlantic Insurance Pcl (ATL.CY) to acquire 18% of the company for EUR 14 mln with an option to increase its stake during the next couple of months to 25% plus one share.
Atlantic Insurance Board members Emilios Pirishis (Chairman and Managing Director), Andreas Frangoullis (Executive Board member) and Giorgos Pirishis (Non-Executive Board member) who together hold 64.24% in the Company's capital agreed to sell 7,039,606 shares to Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) Ltd. The price has been set at EUR2.00 per share. The shares that will be sold correspond to 18% of the Company's capital. Specifically, Emilios Pirishis will sell 1,955,446 shares or 5.0%, Andreas Frangoullis 782,179 shares or 2.0% and Giorgos Pirishis 4,301,981 or 11.0%.
The completion of the sale is subject to the competent authorities' approval.
In the event that Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) Ltd does not manage to secure 25% plus 1 share in the share capital of the Company within 2 months from the completion of the sale, the 3 major shareholders have committed to sell an additional number of shares to Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) Ltd under the same terms so that the number of shares held by the bank reach 25% of the Company's capital plus 1 share. In any case, the additional number of shares cannot be larger than 4% of the Company's capital.
There will be no change in the Executive Management of the Company as a result of the agreement.
Atlantic Insurance is the fifth largest commercial business insurance company operating in Cyprus boasting 30.000 clients. During 2007, total premium income amounted to EUR 21.1 mln with net premium income at EUR 16 mln.
Boosted by profit from its stock brokerage arm, Atlantic Insurance reported EUR 7 mln in net profit for 2007 compared to EUR 4.7 mln in 2006.
In the first half of 2008, ATL reported premium income of EUR 10.8 mln and net premiums of EUR 8.6 mln, but its net profit declined to EUR 2.7 mln from EUR 3.8 mln a year ago in the same period.