On September 21, Bank of Cyprus announced that British Virgin Islands-registered company Odella Resources had raised its stake in the bank to 9.7 percent, by acquiring shares from the bank's employee pension funds and on the market. The BVI company had acquired 7.50 percent of the bank at 4.90 euro per share from the bank's employee pension funds, and the rest amount of shares on the Athens and Cyprus stock exchanges at an average price of 4.07 euro per share.
According to the statement of the Bank of Cyprus, BVI-registered Odella Resources is owned by a Cypriot trust with foreign interests. The new shareholders who have no other banking-related interest have expressed their confidence in the prospects of the bank, which is actually the largest in Cyprus, with presence in Greece and expanding presence in eastern Europe and Russia.
After Tuesday's transaction with Odella Resources, the bank's employee provident funds had reduced their shareholding from 7.6 percent to 0.1 percent.
The Bank of Cyprus also had been notified the pension funds have also entered into an agreement to sell 29,400,000 nil-paid rights to Odella Resources at an average price of 0.8286 euro per right, which corresponds to 8,400,000 new shares upon their exercise.
