STAFF at the Development Bank yesterday got back to work after striking for two weeks in protest at being left in the dark about a deal to sell off part of the company.
The bank’s bosses yesterday handed employees, who are members of bank workers union ETYK, the text of the agreement to sell off 38 per cent of the bank’s share capital to Greece’s Piraeus Bank.
The agreement will reduce the government’s stake in the Development Bank from 88 to 45 per cent. Currently the minor shareholder is the European Investment Bank. The government announced the agreement in late April.
After issuing a warning last week that the employees would consider escalating the protest measures, ETYK secretary-general Loizos Hadjicostis said yesterday that the union was satisfied with the terms of the deal.
Hadjicostis said that the bank’s staff had been reassured that they would receive five per cent of the shares, as the deal provided for.
The buy-up will cost the Piraeus Bank £27.9 million for 37.8 per cent of the Development Bank’s share capital. The agreement with the government also provides for the Development Bank’s flotation on the stock market in Cyprus, Greece or elsewhere, expanding the institution’s operations beyond investment.
Barring the unexpected, the deal will be closed any day, after Piraeus Bank gets the approval of the Greek Central Bank.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
