NICOSIA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- State-controlled Cyprus Cooperative Bank (CCB) has received enough expressions of interest by investors to privatize it, a bank official said on Thursday.
The head of communication and strategy at the bank Yiannos Stavrinides said interest was expressed by qualified investors, enough to cover all aspects of transaction options that it announced a week earlier.
The bank said at the time that prospective investors could express interest "either for the fully licensed bank entity, or all or part of CCB's assets and liabilities".
Stavrinides said that some of the interested investors have invested in Cyprus in the past or still have investments on the island and others have invested in southern Europe countries, including Greece.
The bank issued a statement expressing satisfaction at the level of interest, but gave no names
Citigroup financial services firm was appointed by the bank as an advisor on investors.
Asked whether the bank prefers to see an investor acquiring the bank as a whole or its assets, Stavrinides said that "our preference is the one that will ensure the highest degree of stability."
CCB is burdened with 6.5 billion euros (7.99 billion U.S. dollars) of non-performing loans as a result of the 2013 economic crisis which led Cyprus into a bailout to the tune of billions of euros and its banking system radically resolved.
Non-performing loans account for half of the bank's portfolio. It is also in the worst position relative to other lenders, as its loans are secured by primary-residence collaterals, which under law cannot be auctioned.
Stavrinides conceded that there has been "some activity" in certain branches of the bank as depositors, mostly pensioners and village people, had become agitated by rumors of the lender being in trouble.
Moody's Investors Service cut the bank's baseline credit assessment on Tuesday by two notches to "CA" with an uncertain outlook.
At a closed-door parliamentary debate on the bank's situation last week, speakers said that depositors had withdrawn about 1 billion euros prior to the presidential election in January as a result of rumors about a possible collapse.
However, Stavrinides said that "this concern cannot block the procedure under way" to find investors and ultimately privatize the lender.
The government pumped 1.7 billion euros into the bank in 2014, to avoid a second bank collapse following the winding down of the former Popular Bank of Cyprus (known as Laiki), on the instructions of Cyprus's international lenders -- the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund.
