Bank of Cyprus depositors are reportedly divesting their stakes in the lender at a discount to trim their losses in the wake of seizure of customer deposits by the bank as part of a special move to rescue the island from financial collapse.
Nearly a year ago, Bank of Cyprus seized almost half the deposits, totaling more than 100,000 ($136,000), and converted them into equity as part of 10bn emergency bailout plan.
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Close to 47.5% of the depositors’ money above a 100,000 threshold was turned into equity, along with more than a third of their cashlocked into six, nine and 12-month accounts, as reported by The Financial Times.
The selling of stakes by customers were also prompted by the speculations of capital-raising plans (at least 1bn) by Bank of Cyprus before euro-area bank stress tests, according to Nicosia-based bankers and lawyers.
Since the shares in the bank are trading at low double-digit cents on the euro, the bank customers are offloading their shares including cash deposits locked in fixed-term accounts at a small discount to face value.
Éxito’s Ben Rosenberger and Michele Del Bo, who previously arranged the sale of Lehman Brothers and Icelandic bank distressed debt, told the publication that sellers had so far been mostly international clients who wanted to extract their money from the island by selling their deposits and shares to distressed debt funds.
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By GlobalDataThe Mediterranean island introduced the strictest capital controls ever imposed by a country in the European Union as part of 10bn in international aid from the IMF and the European Union, limiting account withdrawals to 300 and preventing citizens from taking more than 3,000 off the island.
