BoC stakes about to go up for grabs

Two major shareholders of Bank of Cyprus, AB CarVal Investors and Caius Capital, who together hold 15% of the bank's shares, are looking to sell their stakes.

According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, the two shareholders have appointed an adviser to explore the possibility of selling their shares as a package. The shares of the two investors are worth £232 million, or 358 million euros, in total.

The news agency's reports suggest that one of the potential buyers could be one of Greece's major banks, Alpha. About one or two years ago, there had been rumors of talks between the Alpha Bank Group and Bank of Cyprus, which, however, have so far had no tangible result.

On Friday Alpha Bank issued a statement refuting any negotiations with BoC about the acquisition of a stake in its Cypriot counterpart. Alpha added that in the context of implementing its strategic...