Mr. G. Provopoulos, Vice Chairman of Piraeus Bank, made the following statement regarding the agreement with MPB:
"The sale of our Bank of Cyprus stake maximises the benefit for our shareholders, as it allows the realisation of approximately Euro 170 million in capital gains. It also releases more than Euro500 million to fund our growth profitably. It should be noted that the decision to dispose of our stake was made only after having exhausted the possibilities of a friendly cooperation agreement with Bank of Cyprus.
Furthermore, this agreement restores friendly business relations and avoids continuing tension with MPB, which could potentially be harmful for both sides. This allows our bank to aggressively focus on the implementation of its recently announced business plan, which was favourably received by the market. As a reminder, our business plan is exclusively based on organic growth for the group, and targets a doubling of revenues by 2010 and net profits in excess of Euro 1 billion."