Liquidators appointed to Cyprus Airways

Avgoustinos Papathomas and David Dunckley, financial advisers, have been appointed as liquidators for the now defunct Cyprus Airways (CY), creditors and shareholders decided during an assembly on Friday.

The assembly was eventful, according to the Cyprus News Agency. It reported that former workers and shareholders protested the decision, claiming the whole procedure was a sham. Both the workers and the investors present at the meeting stormed out of the auditorium, shouting at the panel comprised of government officials, the report said.

CY private investors are in the process of suing the company, claiming that the airline’s closure by the government has cost them not only the capital they poured in but also deprived them of any right to recover their investment.

Polis Polyviou, the legal representative for Cyprus Airways responded that the only authority that could proclaim the assembly illegal were the courts.
Cyprus Airways is 93 percent owned by the state, the rest is owned by some 4,000 private investors. The former national carrier was grounded in January, after the EU Commission issued a ruling ordering the company to return some €66 million it had received in state aid in 2012.

The assembly also appointed a committee to oversee the liquidation process, comprised of three officials from the office of the Accountant-general and two representatives from the workers’ unions.

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.