By Charlie Charalambous
ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos is embroiled in an unholy row concerning the Louis Cruise Line share issue after he reportedly sold stocks from the Church’s quota to select friends.
Louis is said to have “accommodated” the Archbishopric’s demand for nearly 200,000 shares in the private placement scheme, but Chrysostomos is then charged with selling them on to eight of his relatives and associates.
Critics nicknamed his inner circle of influential friends as the “G-8”, reflecting the power they wield in religious, social and political circles.
The Archbishop acquired 187,500 private placement shares at 40 cents each (they now have a total market value of £560.625), and then sold them on to his chosen few — before they hit the stock market — at 50 cents each, yesterday’s Simerinialleged.
If this is true, the Archbishop made 10 cents on every share, bringing in nearly £20,000 for the church.
But this was all before the much vaunted LCL floatation on the stock market, where Louis shares hit £3.50 on the opening day of trading on August 2, ensuring that the ‘G-8’ made a much bigger potential windfall.
If those who reportedly received the shares were to sell them when the market reopens on Monday, they could expect profits of around £70,000 each, according to last Friday’s closing price of £2.99.
Members of the Holy Synod, clerics and staff at the Archbishopric are said to be “outraged” by the affair and “disgusted” that the Church encouraged such profiteering.
Others are reportedly furious that they were left on the sidelines in the selective share handouts scheme.
A letter from Archbishopric staff to Chrysostomos — published in Simerini– said: “eight individuals had taken advantage of the Louis Cruise Lines share issue and exercised the church’s right for their own gain.”
It is also understood that an emergency meeting of the Holy Synod has been requested to discuss why only a privileged few enjoyed Louis shares, profits from which should have been ploughed back into the church.
On Tuesday, LCL attempted to call a truce over the furore caused by media leaks that political parties and the Cyprus Orthodox Church had enjoyed a free-for-all in the £22.6 million private placement offer.
“We want to stress once more that the company did not offer any gifts or favours to any political party or person… the entire procedure was completely transparent and legal,” said Tuesday’s Louis statement.
Despite the argument that no law or guideline was breached during the share frenzy, the ethics of politicians and the clergy immersing themselves in “naked capitalism” have been the topic of public debate all week.
Stock market fever has over recent weeks reached such a pitch that market capitalisation, which hit £3.8 billion last week (from £1.2 billion in August 1998), is now roughly equivalent to 80 per cent of the island’s Gross Domestic Product.
The list of private placement LCL buyers included semi-government organisations, commercial banks, Louis employees and travel agents. All gave a pledge not to sell the stocks for one year.
The shares and warrants dumped by the company’s top two executives — sparking serious jitters among investors — on the first day of trading were not from the private placement, a Louis source told the Cyprus Mail.
There are now 22,000 shareholders in Louis following the issue of over 46 million shares in the private placement and Initial Public Offering.
The stock exchange has closed for a week under the sheer weight of volume, which has seen the All Share Index increase by 221 per cent since January.
