Bank of Cyprus closes in on its market return
THE BANK of Cyprus hopes to resume trading on the Cypriot and Greek stock exchanges next month, after a 21-month suspension.
The lender also published its prospectus for a retail share offering which it expected to take place in January.
A total of 4.6bn shares will be issued in the new offering, which the bank hopes will raise €100m (£79m).
A substantial majority will go to debt investors who were bailed in – that is, their debts were converted to equity when the bank crashed.
A total of 3.9bn shares will belong to uninsured depositors who were bailed in, and 5.9bn goes to holders of subordinated debt securities.
It came as the bank reported underlying profits of €6m in the third quarter, and €84m in the year so far.
It has deleveraged by €1.1bn in the past three months by selling Romanian and British assets, as well as reducing its emergency liquidity assistance by €1.1bn.
The Bank of Cyprus also reported a core equity tier-one capital buffer of 15.4 per cent on 30 September, up sharply from the 11.3 per cent cushion on 30 June.