Daily Press Review - 20/12/2018

Hellenic – Super-profits due to Co-op

More extensive article on the topic above, with Politis newspaper reporting that even though the majority of HB’s profits are accounting profits, its nine-months results show that the acquisition of the former Co-op’s loans and deposits have boosted its prospects and put it on track to steady profitability. The newspaper also reports that Hellenic Bank’s shares are back being negotiated on the Cyprus Stock Exchange (Contingent Capital Securities 1 and 2), now that its results have been announced. They had to be suspended because during the evaluation of the assets and obligations that were acquired from the Co-op, significant variations emerged in the shares’ fair value. The evaluation led to super-profits and more importantly, boosted the prospects for steady profitability, which revives interest in the procedure to increase HB’s capital by €150m, which is expected to be completed by end-March.

Hellenic’s profits… confirm sell-off

As above, with Haravgi newspaper’s headline implying that the numbers confirm that the Co-op was ‘sold-off’ to increase Hellenic’s profits. It says society suffered losses from the bad management, bad negotiations and criminal results at the Co-op, while HB gained profits. Main opposition AKEL’s economic analyser said yesterday: “The fact that the bank announced profits of €300m yesterday from the Co-op deal speaks for itself.”

Assets of €9.1b went to Hellenic

Assets worth €9.44b, which following the valuation adjustment dropped to €9.14b, were transferred to Hellenic Bank as part of the acquisition of parts of the Cyprus Co-operative Bank, KEDIPES announced yesterday. It said that the two sides completed the evaluation of the assets and obligations that were to be transferred to HB yesterday. The following assets will be moved to HB: €4,272m advances, bonds of €4.074m, cash and deposits worth €1,014m and other assets worth €79m. The obligations are €8,779m in customer deposits, and other obligations of €116m.

Harris Polycarpou

Quote by main opposition AKEL’s economic analyser yesterday: “The fact that the bank announced profits of €300m yesterday from the Co-op deal speaks for itself.”

Offshore companies purchased properties from Altamira

Foreigners, offshore companies and Cypriot developers have purchased real estate from Altamira, which used to belong to the borrowers of the former CCB. Up until November, 531 properties were sold with a collective value of €90m, according to data collected by Phileleftheros newspaper. Around €2.5m’s worth of properties were sold to foreign buyers who wished to acquire Cypriot citizenship through the citizenship-by-investment scheme.

Limni Bay goes to Bank of Cyprus

The Cyprus Limni Resorts & Golf Courses Group yesterday asked for clarifications over the announcement by the Shacolas Group regarding an agreement to exchange properties worth €228m for debt owed to Bank of Cyprus. It seems that part of the agreement concerns property in the Limni area of Polis Chrysochous, part of which has been allocated for the construction of the two golf courses and other developments of the Limni Bay project.

The Estia scheme

‘Active Citizen’ M. Christofides comments on the Estia scheme, saying that even though it is late arriving, it will help some NPL borrowers (not all), who have faced difficulties repaying their loans. But he says the scheme is incomplete and does not cover enough borrowers.

Cyprus Shipping industry benefits from Brexit

Phileleftheros reports that Cyprus is attracting foreign companies, mainly in the shipping sector due to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. P&O, a British shipping company has already registered two of its ships to the Cypriot register due to Brexit. According to Reuters, these are ships carrying out routes between South England-France. However, Phileleftheros reports that the shipping industry is not the only one coming to Cyprus due to Brexit. There is interest from two insurance companies which are active in the shipping sector. The insurance companies are in the process of looking for offices on the island as well as registering to the Registrar of Companies. The interest of the insurance companies was confirmed by Michalis Michael, Chairman of CIPA. Commenting to the newspaper, the Deputy Minister of Shipping Natasa Pilidou said that there is a lot of interest with regards to shipping. She said that the interest from insurance companies, has arisen after efforts. She said that these are P&I clubs, which are very limited around the world and their presence in Cyprus, adds to the status of the Cypriot shipping sector. The newspaper reports that Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) calls specific companies to come to the island in order to develop their activities. A CIPA article in the American news website CNBC, they underline the financial difficulties that UK-based companies are facing and the uncertainty they are experiencing due to the developing negotiations. The article also mentions that Cyprus is planning to create 50.000 job positions and they present the creation of the Limassol casino-resort, City of Dreams Mediterranean, as a successful example of development in Cyprus. They also underline also that even though the size of Cyprus’ economy is small, international companies are active on the island, contributing to the country’s GDP. Shipping is one of Cyprus’ assets while the recent discoveries of natural gas in the EEZ, have attracted interest by various conglomerates of the Enegy industry, such as ExxonMobil, Total, Shell, ENI, Qatar Petroleum and KOGAS.

No question of regulating strikes

The demand by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Employers and Industrialists Federation for strikes in essential services to be regulated, following Limassol port’s dockers’ threats that they will go on indefinite strike if their collective agreement-related demands are not met, was yesterday shot down by a government official, who Phileleftheros newspaper contacted. CCCI and OEV have both reiterated their long-standing demand for strikes to be regulated and sensitive services, such as the port, to be protected – and in extension the country’s trade sector and economy. But the official told the paper that the government has no such intentions; not for the time being anyway. Depending on future developments, he added, it will become clearer if this is a matter that should be tabled for discussion. But for the time being, there is no such question.

National Lottery to be privatised

Phileleftheros author Michalis Hadjistylianou says that the National Lottery will be privatised even if it brings a lot of revenue to the Cypriot economy and doesn’t cost that much to run. Specifically, each year the National Lottery brings a gross profit of around €20m to the Cypriot economy and its low operational costs that do not exceed €1m. However, according to the advisors that the government hired, the state will benefit from the privatization of said institution, since private investors can bring in new products (such as e-instants) and increase profits. The author argues, that such products could have been put forward by the National Lottery, which has remained stagnant for years. According to the advisors, private investors would increase their profits by 39%, without calculating for the new product that they will exclusively introduce to the market. The author cites, Auditor-General, Odysseas Michaelides who says that the privatisation of the National Lottery, should only take place, if there is enough evidence to suggest that the state would gain from this privatisation and that they already took into account all ways to improve the profitability of the institution, if it remains under the State’s management.

Annulment of Police search of OPAP final

The Auditor-General tried to reverse the decision of November 2017 of a judge at the Administrative Court which declared the Police’s search in OPAP’s offices as invalid. However, his appeal was rejected and the Judge’s decision was declared final.

Candidates for Deputy Tourism Minister post

As time is running out for the creation of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, rumours concerning the Deputy Minister post are intensifying, involving multiple names of candidates. The Cabinet is called to announce and ratify the assignment of a new person that will lead the tourism reform next week. Some of the people that have been reportedly considered to take up the post, are the Mayor of Ayia Napa, Giannis Karousos, the outgoing Chairman of OEV, Christos Michaelides, CTO chairman, Angelos Louziou and the Vice-chairman of CTO, Kostas Koumis. Some of the women officials that were reportedly considered, were CTO Board Member, Xenia Louzidou and CYBC Board Member Stella Michaelidou.

CTO fully ready online

Phileleftheros reports that everything is ready for the transformation of the CTO to Deputy Ministry of Tourism on 2 January. Concerning the organisation’s online presence everything is ready, since the organisation’s websites are already welcoming visitors to the Deputy Ministry of Tourism. The website also explains the powers of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism.

Greek and Cypriot scientists discover compound for AML treatment

Greek and Cypriot scientists in the UK have found a potential new treatment for aggressive types of leukemia in a rather unexpected place, eye drops. They found that the compound, which targets an essential cancer gene, could kill leukemia cells without harming non-leukemic blood cells. The eyedrops are being developed to treat retinal neovascular disease, which is an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina. The results, published on Wednesday in Nature Communications, reveal a potential new treatment for Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive type of blood cancer which historically has had a very poor prognosis. Dr. George Vassiliou, joint leader of the research team, declared “We have discovered that inhibiting a key gene with a compound being developed for an eye condition can stop the growth of an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia without harming healthy cells.

Illegal possession of duty-free tobacco products

Police and Customs officers located 7 kilos and 625 grams of roll- your- own cigarette tobacco, 312 packages of 20 pieces of cigarettes of various brands and 34 packages of 20 pieces of heated tobacco products at a Greek Cypriot’s kiosk. The owner of the kiosk was arrested for illegal possession of duty-free products and not paying duties and taxes, since he admitted that the tobacco products whose tax-fee amounts to €1,745 come from the occupied areas. The Customs Director then accepted an out-of-court settlement for the offenses of €7,300. Upon receipt of the settlement the kiosk’s owner was released, while the tobacco products confiscated remained at the Customs Office.

The end of plastics

Member states and the European Commission agreed on new regulations concerning the use of plastic. More specifically, plastic balloons will continue to be sold in the European market, without special warning signs. However, plastic rods on which balloons are tied to are going to be banned by 2021. However, the bad news for smokers is that cigarettes will become more expensive since the tobacco industry will have to contribute to the cost of disposal of packages thrown carelessly by the consumers. For drinks bottles and their caps recycling quotas will be set: 25% from 2025 and 30% from 2030. The target is to collect 90% by 2029 of the total plastic bottles for reuse or disposal in an environmentally friendly way.

Hospitals in the afternoon

The article reports that public hospitals will not be closing at noontime, but will be working until late in the afternoon, following autonomisation. This is a basic provision in the agreement between the government and doctors’ trade unions for the healthcare reform, dated 28 July 2017. Doctors and the Organisation of State Healthcare Services (OKYPY) are discussing another serious issue which will help solve a lot of the problems that public hospitals are currently facing. This concerns the creation of an Organisational Chart and clinics’ structures, which will lead in the assigning the right people and the smooth operation of the hospitals. Within the week, very likely Friday, hospital staff will get the infamous contracts from OKYPY, which will help them decide whether they will maintain their public worker status or whether they will transfer to OKYPY. On Friday, an agreement will also be signed between the Ministry and doctors’ trade unions concerning the on-call system.

Doctors satisfied from compensation, still expecting contracts

The Cyprus State Doctors Union welcomes the long-term negotiation effort between the Ministry of Health and trade unions to review the overtime compensation system of medical staff. The new scheme expires on the 1^st June 2020 i.e. when GHS will be implemented. According to the President of the State doctors' union (Pasyki) Sotiris Koumas, OKYPY and trade unions must discuss other issues concerning structure, overtime, working hours and the assessment system. Koumas stated that concerning the contracts issue, progress has been sluggish. He believes that it would have been better if they had agreed on the contracts with the Organisation so as not to have problems later. However, according to the newspaper’s information the contracts will be given to the doctors in the coming days and they will have the opportunity to examine them until the 31^st of December.

Greek and Cypriot scientists discover compound which could treat leukemia

Greek and Cypriot scientists in the UK have found a potential new treatment for aggressive types of leukemia in a rather unexpected place, eye drops. They found that the compound, which targets an essential cancer gene, could kill leukemia cells without harming non-leukemic blood cells. The eyedrops are being developed to treat retinal neovascular disease, which is an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina. The results, published on Wednesday in Nature Communications, reveal a potential new treatment for Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive type of blood cancer which historically has had a very poor prognosis. Dr. George Vassiliou, joint leader of the research team, declared “We have discovered that inhibiting a key gene with a compound being developed for an eye condition can stop the growth of an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia without harming healthy cells.

Exercise, medicines and hypertension

A new study has suggested that exercise could be as good at drugs at reducing high blood pressure. While the benefits of exercise on lowering blood pressure have been studied – and proven – before, the new research looked to determine how exercise compares with blood pressure lowering drugs, as no direct head to head clinical trials have yet been carried out Led by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine – the study pooled data from 194 previous clinical trials, assessing the impact of drugs on lowering systolic blood pressure, and 197 trials looking at the impact of structured exercise involving nearly 40,000 people. While the results showed that people treated with drugs had lower blood pressure than those following structured exercise programmes, the findings also suggested that when analyses were restricted to those with high blood pressure, exercise seemed to be just as effective as most drugs. The effectiveness of exercise also increased the higher the patient's blood pressure was. The study also found "compelling evidence" that mixing cv exercise – such as running, walking, cycling or swimming – with strength and/or resistance training seemed particularly effective in lowering blood pressure.