Finance Minister Michalis Sarris has a few more days to go before he takes a final decision on whether the Superintendent of Insurance was justified to block the transfer of Universal Life Insurance Co. shares from Marfin Popular Bank to Aspis Holdings. In February, Aspis Holdings (formerly MFS Holdings) announced the acquisition of a 35.12%
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A new trend is emerging in the European banking landscape as evidenced by the recent flurry of cross-border consolidation in Europe, the size of the deals — the acquisition of ABN Amro, if successful, will be the biggest in history — and the increased assertiveness of shareholders, says Moody’s Investors Service in a new Special
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IFG Group Plc, the international trustee and corporate management company with USD 30 bln in funds under management, has launched its Cyprus operation with its wholly owned subsidiary, IFG Trust (Cyprus) Ltd. Listed on both the the Dublin and London stock exchanges, IFG Group includes subsidiaries and operations in Ireland, the U.K., Switzerland, Jersey, British
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The Shacolas Group of Companies have pledged to round-down euro prices by up to 1% when the euro becomes official tender on January 1, 2008, sending a strong message to the Cypriot consumer concerned that businessess will proceed with rampant price hikes when the euro is introduced. NKS Group Executive Chairman Nicos Shacolas made the
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Maarten Dijkshoorn, the president of the Eureko Group, a Top 20 European insurer, arrives in Cyprus to visit the head offices of its subsidiary insurance company in Nicosia, InterLife. Dijkshoorn’s two-day visit is part of a corporate road show to call on all Eureko Group companies outside the Netherlands. During his visit to Cyprus, he
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The Italian Ambassador to Cyprus, Luigi Napolitano, has bestowed the title of “Commendore dell’ Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana†to the president of Employers Federation of Cyprus (OEV), Dr. Andreas Pittas. The ceremony took place during a reception held at the ambassador’s residence on the occasion of the national day of Italy attended by
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By Michael S. Olympios, Chief Consultant Allied Business Consultants  Bank of Cyprus’ annual general meetings have not lacked drama. Until 2004 shareholders demanded corporate governance reforms, an exodus from past mistakes and good performance. Since then the biggest banking organization has managed to do all that and indeed to exceed expectations several times prompting
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It is ridiculous, to say the least, that despite the strenuous efforts by all to bolster the island’s tourism industry and make (in some cases futile) attempts to overturn the falling number of tourist arrivals, local authorities are still bound by Colonial-type laws and prohibitions. One such silly legislation is the imposition of a fine
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The enterprise mobility business of Motorola, Inc. has introduced the new rugged Symbol LS3578-ER and LS3578-FZ cordless Bluetooth scanners for warehouse, distribution, and manufacturing environments. Ideal for scan-intensive applications in the most extreme working conditions, the Symbol LS3500 series of scanners provides superior performance and reliability for various industrial applications including shipping and receiving, inventory
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Ericsson has announced an upgrade to its high-performance Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) system, the EDA 1500, an important part of the company’s broadband offering. The upgraded version of EDA 1500 can now switch bandwidth up to 320Gbps for commercial and residential next-generation multimedia services. Fiber optic technology and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments are becoming an increasingly important
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