Final push for Bank of Cyprus control; 49 board candidates

A record 49 names are contesting the 18 board seats of the restructured Bank of Cyprus that will come out of the first consolidated shareholders’ meeting next Tuesday.
Never before have so many names been put forward as candidates to the board of directors, with 12 of the current interim board members willing to stay on.
The remaining 37 names were put forward by individual and corporate shareholders, all keen to look after their own or stakeholder interests. Perhaps a handful have been proposed based on merit.
At least six of the candidates are foreign depositors, while a number of others also represent individual or corporate foreign depositors.
The bank announced on Tuesday that its share capital as at August 30, 2013 amounted to 4,698,219,049 euros divided into 4,698,219,049 ordinary shares of a nominal value of 1.00 each, of which 81.4% is held by 21,000 shareholders arising from the conversion of unsecured deposits. A further 0.5% is held by 88,000 former BOCY shareholders and 18.1% is held by the ‘legacy Laiki’ following Popular Laiki’s closure and absorption into BOCY.
Of the existing board members appointed by the Central Bank as resolution authority, interim chairman and vice chairman Sophocles Michaelides and Erol Riza, have submitted their names once again.
The other interim board members up for re-election are: Constantinos Damstas, Lenia Georgiadou, Costas Hadjipapapas, Philippos Mannaris, Lambros Papadopoulos, Andreas Persianis, Panicos Pouros, Savvakis Savvides, Takis Taoushanis and Michalis Zannetides.
The 37 other candidates are:
Anastasiades Gavriel (proposed by Ariana Anastasiades);
Anshakova Anjelica (Scordis, Papapetrou & Co Holdings);
Chichikashvili Dmitry (Scordis, Papapetrou & Co Holdings);
Christos Christou (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Chrysodontas Constantinos (Athina Michael);
Episkopou Spyros (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Fereos Yiorgos (Dora Kyriakidou);
Flourentzou Efthymios (Yursa Nika Management Ltd.);
Galanou Alexandra (Lia Neocleous);
Gialelis Marinos (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Gregoriades Aristotelis (Evanthia Loizidou);
Hasapis Christis (BOCY Provident Fund);
Herodotou Constantinos (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Ioannou Stelios (Phoenicia Fereos Cyprus Ltd);
Kalochoritis Marios (Cetafe Enterprises Ltd);
Katsaros Constantinos (Ay Ioannis Theologos Church C’tee);
Kurazov Erishkan (Christodoulos Vassiliades & Co LLC);
Lojevsky Igor (Yiorgos Tsielepis);
Machairas Nicolaos (Panos Panayiotou);
Mistelis Loucas (Panos Panayiotou);
Palexas Zacharias (Panos Panayiotou);
Papaconstantinou Adonis (Panos Panayiotou);
Partasides Christakis (Savvas Iacovides);
Pigasiou Akis (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Sidorov Vladimir -Alexadrovich (M.C.R.S. Ltd.);
Smetanin Anton (Christodoulos Vassiliades & Co LLC);
Spanos Michalis (Constantinos Zorpas);
Strzhalkovskiy Vladimir (Bolestone Trading Ltd.);
Taxitaris Demetris (Phanos Epiphaniou Holdings Ltd.);
Theodosiou Panayiotis (Andreas Sophocleous);
Theodotou Marina (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Tzirkalli Andreas (Panos Panayiotou);
Vasiliou Vasos (Evdokimos Xenophontos);
Vrachas Xanthos (Panos Panayiotou);
Yiannas Marios (BOCY Provident Fund);
Yiasemides Andreas (Eastwise Trading Ltd.);
Zografakis Ioannis (Rois Potamitis).
It is not yet clear if interim CEO Christos Sorotos, appointed on May 29, will stay at the helm of the bank and navigate it through the restructuring plan that has been proposed by consultants McKinsey and subject to approval or implementation by the new board.
Andri Antoniades, appointed by the Central Bank as Special Administrator of Laiki Popular Bank, was not included among the candidates, suggesting that a single person will not be putting a claim to the 18% shareholding represented by ‘legacy Laiki’ depositors.
On the other hand, original BOCY shareholders, including the Church of Cyprus, who have seen their stake diluted to below 1%, seem to have had cold feet and withdrawn a court injucntion to block the general meeting and reinstate their stake.
The general meeting to be held at the Filoxenia conference centre in Nicosia at 4pm on Tuesday will only deal with the leection of up to 18 board members. The draft consolidated group results for FY2012 will be reviewed by the new board on October 10.
The bank said in an announcement that a brief biographical note or CV of each canmdidate will be posted in due time at http://www.bankofcyprus.com/el-GR/–/Investors-Relations-gr/Investors-Relations-home-gr/