BOCY shares exchanged at steep discount

A large package of Bank of Cyprus Pcl (BOCY) shares amounting to 19.992.098 shares, representing 3.6% of the Bank’s capital were exchanged at the opening of trade on Friday through the Athens Stock Exchange at a steep discount in a price range of EUR 6.78 to EUR 7.52.

Specifically, 4.945.000 shares were transferred at EUR 7.52, another 4.944.219 at EUR 6.78, another 5.254.610 at EUR 7.52 and a further 4.778.269 shares at EUR 7.46 for an average price of EUR 7.30. The total value of the deal is EUR 145.86 mln.

The steep discount of around 24% raised eyebrows as to why such a big block of shares are being passed to a number of institutional investors, who now have the advantage of dumping the shares quietly in the market and making a juicy profit.

Greek financial web site euro2day.gr reported that the deal refers to portfolio shift by Piraeus Bank, while BOCY officials were unavailable for comment.