(Bloomberg) -- Bank of Cyprus Holdings Plc plans to move its listing from the London Stock Exchange back to the Athens bourse in a bid to attract new investors, the country’s largest lender said.
“The move to Athens will give us a greater visibility among a larger group of relevant investors for our profile and facilitate a peer comparison with banks in Greece that have a similar profile to us,” Chief Executive Officer Panicos Nicolaou said in an interview Thursday. It also has the potential to enhance the liquidity of the bank’s stock, he said.
Bank of Cyprus left the Greek market in 2016, during the financial turmoil which saw the country come close to leaving the euro. Eight years later, the decision to return reflects Greece’s recovery from a decade of crisis and rising investor confidence in local stocks which have outpaced broader European indexes.
The listing in Athens is expected in the Autumn subject to shareholder and Athens Stock Exchange listing committee approval, Nicolaou said. It “will yield a number of long-term strategic and capital market benefits,” the CEO said earlier Thursday in a statement.
The news is “another positive trigger” and “can improve liquidity in view of the relatively low average daily trading volume in the LSE,” Athens-based Euroxx Securities said in a note to investors Thursday.
The bank also published second quarter results on Thursday, with profit after tax rising 4% to €137 million from a year earlier while the lender upgraded its financial targets for 2024 and 2025.
Bank of Cyprus is now targeting a 50% payout ratio for this year subject to market conditions and required approvals, and will review its distribution policy with 2024 results.
The bank — which can trace its roots back to the late 19th century — was restructured in 2013 in the wake of the Greek debt crisis and was recapitalized through the conversion of deposits into shares. In 2023, the lender restarted dividend payments for the first time since 2011.
In the coming weeks the bank will explain in detail why it is recommending the LSE de-listing, “with a proposal to be put to shareholders at a forthcoming EGM to be convened in due course,” Nicolaou said.
The bank will retain a dual listing on the Nicosia exchange.
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