Daily Press Review - 21/6/2019

Kristofer Richard Kraus appointed to HB’s board

Hellenic Bank has announced the appointment of Kristofer Richard Kraus as an non-independent, non-executive member of the bank’s Board until 19 June 2019. According to a relevant announcement, his appointment has been approved by the European Central Bank. Hellenic Bank will announce its quarterly financial results for 2019, on 18 June. They already announced €319.3m in profits in 2018, compared with €45.7m in losses in 2017 due to the negative goodwill in their statements caused by the absorption of the good business of the Co-op. On 26 June, the bank will hold an extraordinary shareholder meeting, where resolutions will be submitted, so as to amend the company’s statute. These amendments include among others, the corporate governance code of the Central Bank, on the basis of which Board members who are employed by the shareholders can participate in the Board of Directors, as non-independent members. It should be noted that according to the corporate governance code, 50% of Hellenic’s members must be independent. The BoD of Hellenic Bank is comprised of 13 members. Stockwatch reports that one of the scenarios that leaked yesterday, report that a senior member of Pimco is supported by the two current major shareholders of the bank, Wargaming and the investment fund Third Point. This means that at the regular general meeting on 24 July, there will be an alliance between Wargaming, Third Point and Poppy Sarl so as to claim as many seats as possible in the bank’s Board.



The winners of the CFO Awards

The Cyprus CFO Awards, which has been established as an institution, recognised professional excellency in the sector of Financial Management in Cypriot businesses. CFOs , Finance Directors and Finance teams tend to be the invisible heroes behind the deals or projects of their companies and are very often responsible for their company’s success. InBusiness presents the people awarded at the CFO Management Forum. The Finance and Technology Award, was given to Andrew Tinney, Chief Financial Officer of Wargaming. However, due to prior obligations, Mr Tinney couldn’t receive the award that was accepted by Mr Christodoulos Christodoulou, Head of Corporate Reporting of Wargaming and Michalis Chalios, Head of Finance Enterprise Application of the company.



After departing with compensation from the Co-op, some are still employed with hefty salaries

Phileleftheros reports that some people were compensated for departing from the Co-op and they were employed by the Cyprus Asset Management Company (KEDIPES), which is the evolution of the Co-op. This concerns 60 employees of the former Co-op, who chose to retire from the bank, receiving a Voluntary Retirement Scheme. Certainly, some of them, due to their position, they received the maximum compensation amount, which was €180K. Subsequently, they returned to the same legal entity and they continue to be employed with a hefty salary. During yesterday’s meeting, they reported that there is a former employee of the Co-op, who held a senior position and after being compensate with €180K, he was hired by KEDIPES with a €5K salary while he was also given an official car of the former Co-op. The Auditor-General said that the compensation was given to some of the employees because they would be unemployed. As he said, some of them are still employed by KEDIPES, receiving a €5K monthly salary. On the part of KEDIPES, Stavros Iakovou said that the specific employees are necessary and that by the end of November, their number will be significantly reduced. Besides, Iakovou said that the employee in reference is a significant member of the company. He also supported that during the agreement that was signed and concerned the staff, it was decided that senior members of the Co-op that would go to Hellenic Bank or KEDIPES would get to keep their official vehicles. He said that an independent firm is examining the way that KEDIPES has been staffed and operates. It should be noted that another 300 Co-op employees, who retired via the Scheme, are now employed by Hellenic Bank.



Four probes by Odysseas

Phileleftheros reports that the Audit Office is expected to carry out four checks. The office will examine the purchase procedures that KEDIPES has followed for the sale of the Co-op’s properties. The Auditor-General, Odysseas Michaelides, reported that random checks will be carried out, since there were thousands of sales. Specifically, the office will examine all the activities that took place up until the sale of the properties. They will examine the property valuations of the properties, on the basis of which they were sold to either private buyers or Hellenic Bank. Furthermore, they will examine whether any politically exposed persons, businesspeople and former Co-op members, received any privileged information prior to buying property. The second probe will concern the loans of PEPs at the Co-op, since the Attorney-General gave the Audit Office the green light to carry out the probe. The office will examine the background of the PEP loans, both before and after the deal with Hellenic Bank. Specifically, they will examine their loan status in 2014, 2016 and 2018. At the same time, they will sieve through all the debt restructuring schemes that took place at the Co-op, so as to understand whether some loans were struck off. Furthermore, the Audit Office will potentially need to abolish banking secrecy. The third probe concerns the matter of employees who departed from the bank through the voluntary retirement scheme and are still employed by KEDIPES. The object of the fourth probe will be the Co-op’s asset management by Altamira.



KEDIPES: 3.000 properties and 12 warehouses with equipment, paintings and ancient artefacts

Even though after the sale of thousands of properties, KEDIPES still has a huge fortune, which includes among others, 3.004 property titles, 12 warehouses full of equipment such as computers, offices, as well as hundreds of high-value paintings and ancient artefacts. As the House Watchdog Committee said yesterday, the value of the 3.004 titles is estimated to be around €600m. Out of these, 2.100 titles (worth €260m) came from debt-to-asset swaps, 570 (worth €130m) were bought from the Co-op for investment purposes, 43 (worth €32m) are mixed development projects (shops and offices and/or apartments), 163 (worth €83m) were used by the Co-op itself, while 107 (worth €102m) were rented out to Hellenic Bank, who has a right to purchase them.

 

As the probe deepens, the damage appears to be even bigger

Haravgi reports that the House Watchdog Committee meeting on KEDIPES yesterday confirmed AKEL’s concerns, since it has been proved that the damage is even bigger. In a statement, the Press Representative of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou who tabled the matter at the Parliament, stressed that the meeting confirmed that as the probe on the Co-op proceeds, the economic crime of the government proves to be even bigger. He also underlined that it has been proved that the government had lied in relation to the management of the properties as well as with regards to wider issues that have to do with the very bad deal with Hellenic Bank.



Hellenic Bank Masters Tennis Academy underway

The island-wide tournament “Hellenic Bank Masters Tennis Academy” has been underway since 14 June and is organised by the Academy with the same name in Strovolos. The Grade 1 category tournament holds matches for 16 different age groups, Men/Women, Singles/Doubles, and a total of 158 tennis players are participating (190 entries). During the long weekend, including the Monday holiday, the marches were held both in the morning and the afternoon, with the exception of Sunday afternoon, when the matches were postponed due to bad weather. From Tuesday onwards, the matches are held both in the afternoon and evening, while the category finals are scheduled for Sunday, 23 June.



The “red” list is nowhere to be found

The Attorney General gave KEDIPES the approval so that they give the Audit Office the information they have for the NPLs of politically exposed persons in the former Co-op, with a view to investigate potential preferential debt restructuring schemes and/or strike offs. In the meantime, the article reports, the list that was given by the former Central Bank governor to the House President on the NPLs of PEPs has been completely forgotten.



First instalments for Estia in December

The first instalment of the Estia scheme will be submitted next December, said the Minister of Finance Harris Georgiades. Speaking to the midday show of “Omega” channel, Mr Georgiades said that “already, the scheme will be open for applications and in December, the first payments will take place as it was scheduled”. Mr Georgiades rejected claims that there had been foreclosures of primary residences saying that “I don’t think that there were any foreclosures of house and we left them happen without reacting”



Dependence – prevention for everyone by everyone

Teenagers took part in an annual meeting that took place at the Presidential Palace on 18 June on the prevention of addiction in the framework of KENTHEA’s prevention projects. The Metropolitan Bishop Isaiah thanked the first lady for hosting the event at the Palace and also thanked ExxonMobil/Esso Cyprus which lends its practical and ethical support. He stressed that “we should not forget that when we talk about dependence, we are not only referring to illegal substances but also legal ones such as alcohol, smoking and behavioural addictions such as gambling, playing video games and excessively surfing internet.



HIO is recording GHS problems

The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) is working tirelessly in order to record and quickly solve all of the problems, technical and beyond, that health professionals have observed thus far within the GHS. Yesterday, the HIO held meetings with GPs for both adults and children, while today they will convene with pharmaceutical suppliers, as the shortages observed in private pharmacies have burdened the patients’ care.



Cry for help

Parents of children with Inherited Metabolic Diseases (IMD) cry out of desperation due to the unsolved issues they encounter. They recently heard promises that solutions to their problems are underway, and that this commitment is not just empty words. This issue was discussed in yesterday’s conference of the Health Committee, as parents complaint of unacceptable behaviour by health professionals, and that requests for sending some children for specific issues abroad are left unexamined.



Health certificates not covered by the GHS

Health Insurance Organisation (HIO), informs health care service providers and GHS beneficiaries that services by doctors or other providers involved with the issuance of health certificates due to medical need (e.g. health certificates for athletes, professional health records, health certificates for security purposes, contracts, and so on) are not covered by the GHS. Therefore, these services should be obtained outside of the GHS and the provider of the service will be compensated by the person who applies for the certificate.