By Hamza Hendawi
THE POPULAR Bank said yesterday it planned to seek the listing of the Cyprus-based group and its Greek subsidiary, the European Popular Bank, on the robust Athens Stock Exchange.
“There will be consultations on both matters with the (Athens) exchange authority,” said Kikis Lazarides, the Popular Bank chairman and chief executive.
Speaking from Athens to a news conference in Nicosia on a live television link, Lazarides said the decision by the European Popular Bank to seek a listing in Athens had been approved by shareholders of the Greek subsidiary during a general meeting on Wednesday.
“The prospects of listing are good. The only details we can give now are that we have already started consultations with the Athens Stock Exchange to ascertain what is needed by them,” said Lazarides.
Popular Bank shares, four days into their two-for-one split, closed at £3.80 yesterday, up 8 cents, while its warrants also closed in positive territory, up by 11.50 cents at £4.87.
The Popular Bank has been known for months to be considering a listing in the Athens bourse, one of the best performing emerging markets in Europe, whose fortunes are closely monitored by traders in Cyprus. His announcement, however, that the group’s Greek subsidiary would seek a separate Athens listing was unexpected.
European Popular Bank shareholders, according to Lazarides, yesterday also approved an increase in its share capital to 25 billion drachmas (about £45 million) from 5.5 billion drachmas (about £9.8 million) to help an expansion drive by the bank in Greece.
Lazarides said European Popular Bank branches in Greece would rise to 17 from the current 13 and would leap to 40 or 50 branches in the next three years.
Faced with the limitations of the small Cyprus market and eager to gain an international image, the Popular Bank Group and its bigger rival, Bank of Cyprus, entered the lucrative and larger Greek market in the early 1990s and now depend on their operations there for a good chunk of their profits. Hellenic Bank, the island’s distant third largest bank, opened its first branch in Greece last December and plans several more this year.
The Bank of Cyprus has already applied for a listing in Athens. It said last month that the necessary piece of legislation on foreign companies listing in Athens had been tabled in the Greek Parliament for approval.
The listing course for the European Popular Bank should be much easier than that of the Popular Bank Group or the Bank of Cyprus since it is a Greek- registered concern, according to Popular Bank officials.
The all-share index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange, meanwhile, rose yesterday for the second successive day. It closed at 151.47, 2.03 per cent up on Wednesday. Combined, the two successive hikes have more than compensated for Tuesday’s drop of 3.60 per cent.
The Bank of Cyprus was up 13.50 cents to close at £6.64. Hellenic Bank, continuing its impressive run of late, was up 11 cents and closed at £4.24.
Universal Bank rose by 5 cents to end the day at £2.32.
