Hellenic was one of three Cypriot banks which sold their Greek branches to that country’s second-biggest lender Piraeus Bank in March under a deal brokered between Cypriot authorities and international lenders to ring-fence the Cypriot banking system and prevent its chaotic bailout spilling over to Greece. Hellenic, in which the Church of Cyprus is a major shareholder, said it booked a €10.2 million loss from the sale of its Greek unit in a deal valued at €29 million. The total cost for Piraeus of acquiring the Hellenic, Popular Bank and Bank of Cyprus Greek operations was €524 million.

Cyprus was forced to wind down Laiki and slash uninsured deposits over €100,000 in Bank of Cyprus in return for €10 billion in aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Unlike Laiki and Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic was not exposed to the restructuring of Greek sovereign debt which blew a hole in the other banks’ balance sheets. However it said on Friday that group provisions for non-performing loans more than doubled to €56.4 million from €24.1 million a year earlier, reflecting a deteriorating economic environment. “The developments which followed the Eurogroup meeting of March 25 created a new economic environment in Cyprus which has changed the banking landscape. Inevitably the bank was and will be affected by this,” Hellenic said.

Source: Cyprus Mail