Six Russian representatives were elected in a 16 member-strong board of directors of the Bank of Cyprus, ITAR-TASS reports. This is the result of the Tuesday’s voting at a meeting of stockholders in this crediting organization.
The Bank of Cyprus reported that former CEO of the mining and metallurgical company Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, Vice-President of the Deutsche Bank affiliate in Eastern Europe Igor Lozhevsky, Anzhelika Anshakova, a member of the board of directors of Binbank, which is controlled by investor Mikhail Shishkhanov, Eriskhan Kurazov, who represents Shishkhanov’s interests in a tender for the sale of the Moscow hotel National, Anton Smetanin (represented the interests of investor Vitaly Yusufov in the board of directors of the Bank of Moscow) and Dmitry Chichikashvili, the chief executive of the development concern Insigma, were elected in the board of directors of the Cypriot bank.
Heated debates preceded the voting and nearly grew in clashes between old and new stockholders. The meeting of shareholders was held with many policemen guarding the order. The holders of old securities of the bank were mainly discontent, as the price of these securities dropped to one cent instead of one euro per unit as a result of recent restructuring. These shareholders, who considered themselves defrauded, demanded cancellation of the voting and postponement of the meeting. However, finally they decided to leave the meeting hall. However, their presence would not have had a major influence on the voting, because these old shareholders accounted for only 0.5 percent of share capital following restructuring.
The holders of major uninsured deposits of more than 100,000 euro became new owners of the crediting organization. Their funds were involved in re-capitalization of the Bank of Cyprus according to the terms of crediting aid to Cyprus from the troika of creditors. Last July, the amount of trimming their deposits was finally set at 47.5 percent. In a return they received the Class A voting shares. As a result of the trim about eight billion euro were acquired for re-capitalization. The Russians were the most affected from this unprecedented measure.
Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service
