State-owned asset manager company, KEDIPES, registered cash inflows of €130 million for the fourth quarter last year, leaning to record cash inflows of €440 million for full-year 2023, KEDIPES President Lambros Papadopoulos said on Tuesday, adding that payments to the government have reached €1.16 billion amounting to one third of the state aid, granted in 2018 as part of the sale of the now defunct Cyprus Cooperative Bank (CCB).

Speaking during a press conference, Papadopoulos said that the government-funded “rent-to-installment” scheme has begun successfully with approximately 1,300 applications of which 1,000 were submitted by eligible borrowers. KEDIPES is responsible for the implementation of the scheme aiming to assist vulnerable non-performing borrowers to keep their homes.

Papadopoulos also announced the renewal of a plan to subsidise high interest rates for restructured credit facilities linked with the ECB’s Euribor, which in 2023 assisted borrowers with loans worth €94 million to cover their arrears and to enter a perimeter of eligible loans amounting to €380 million.

Furthermore, he announced a new scheme for the full repayment of loans collateralized by primary residences worth below €350,000 on the basis of the residency’s value and not of the loan balance.

«2023 is the year with the highest cash inflows since the inception of KEDIPES in 2018 as revenue amounted to €441 million compared with €439 million in 2022,” Papadopoulos said.

He added that KEDIPES “is focused on the target to fully repay the state-aid it received in 2018 as soon as possible, although challenges for reaching this target have increased.”

KEDIPES was the residual entity of the defunct CCB, whose performing loan book and other assets were sold to Hellenic Bank in 2018 with the government providing state aid amounting to €3.5 billion. KEDIPES’ main mandate was to manage non-performing loans and real estate with a view to repay the state.

Presenting KEDIPES’ financial results, Papadopoulos said that since its inception, the state-owned asset manager has reached total cash inflows of €2.1 billion by end-2023, while total deleveraging reached €3.2 billion.

Assets under management by end-2023 declined to €5.05 billion compared to €8.25 billion in 2018 with the deleverage ratio amounting to 40%.

He added that KEDIPES holds approximately performing loans amounting to €710 million, immovable property of €470 million and €164 in cash, of which €60 million are earmarked to cover the payments for the “rent-to-installment” scheme.

Papadopoulos noted that KEDIPES holds “good quality assets worth €1.3 billion which will yield ample of cash inflows in 2024 and the following years.”