Marfin extends presence in Cyprus

THE MARFIN group appeared yesterday to be on a new spending spree with forays into the health and dairy sector in Cyprus.

Marfin, which merged with Laiki Bank last year, yesterday said it had acquired the Achilleion Hospital in Limassol through the Greece-based Hygeia Diagnostic & Therapeutic Centre in Athens, which Marfin owns.

A statement said Hygeia SA had acquired a 56.7 per cent stake of the share capital of “Chryssafiliotissa Public Ltd” which owns the Achilleion in Limassol. The deal is worth some £8.3 million.

The Achilleion is a modern, private hospital built in 2004, with a building of 7,000 square meters, and 86 inpatient beds, mainly suites and private rooms, eight operating theatres, five labour and delivery rooms, an Intensive Care Unit and a Step-Down Unit.

It also has major diagnostic capability, including clinical laboratories, CT-Scan and MRI, and has over 120 cooperating physicians.

“The acquisition of a hospital in Cyprus is in the scope of Hygeia’s rapidly materialising expansion strategy calling for it to create the region’s largest integrated healthcare services group in southeastern Europe,” said the statement.

It was also reported yesterday that the Marfin Group had acquired a 30 per cent stake in Vivartia SA, a leading dairy producer in Greece and Cyprus in a deal worth 550 million euro. In Cyprus, Vivartia is the leading dairy producer having full control of Charalambides and Christis with a commanding share of the fresh milk, cheese and yogurt market and with Christis involved in halloumi exports.

In a third development Marfin and CLR, one of Cyprus’ leading financial services companies, told the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) they were in advanced negotiations for a merger between Laiki Investments CLR Capital Public Ltd. More details would be announced in the coming days, the two identical statements said.

Trading in both stocks resumed yesterday after being suspended by the CSE on Tuesday.
Pulling the strings at Marfin is the Dubai Investment Group, whose CEO Soud Ba’Alawy visited the island in February this year. Soon after Marfin forked out £30 million to the Louis Group for the majority stake in the Cyprus Tourist Development Company, which operates the Hilton.

Reports that Marfin was planning follow-up with more acquisitions in the health and leisure sector were not far behind.

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.