The developments for the acquisition of Emporiki Bank have reached their final stage and the Bank of Cyprus and Credit Agricole do their utmost to claim the Greek bank.

The Bank of Cyprus, which submitted additional data that might affect its Capital Adequacy Index to the Central Bank of Cyprus, tries hard to convince its shareholders that the Public Offer is positive. The analysts believe that a large part of the shareholders is highly concerned about the BOC movement.

Meanwhile, certain analysts refer to the struggle between Piraeus Bank and the Bank of Cyprus for the acceptance or not of the PO at the latter’s AGM on July 28. Piraeus Bank holds 8.19% of the BOC share capital, but same analysts expect that until July 28 it will be able to control 15% (via foreign institutional investors).

A third offer is unlikely…

A third offer for Emporiki Bank seems unlikely at the current stage but not impossible, since the deadline for the submission of a PO expires on July 25.

Emporiki to decide…

This week (probably between July 11 and 13), the Board of Directors of Emporiki Bank will meet to examine the two Public Offers. According to Greek reports, the management has already at its disposal the proposal of its advisor, JP Morgan. “Our role is not to say which offer should the shareholders accept. We will state the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them and they will form a decision”. According to Greek sources, Emporiki Bank believes that this initiative is a duty since “the Greek state is not the sole shareholder of the bank. There are thousands of individual and institutional investors, Greek and foreigners, who must decide on the offer”.