In January 2001 Greece will join the euro-zone and the Athens stock exchange will begin to develop and move away from its present emerging market status.
In this context the Bank of Cyprus (BOC) launched a secondary offering of 39 million shares on the Athens stock exchange in early October. They were offered at GRD3,100 per share and the company expects to raise about GDR130 billion from the exercise.
BOC is the leading Greek Cypriot bank, accounting for 42% of the market and having gained 2% of the banking market in mainland Greece. It is the largest company listed in Cyprus and makes up 35% of the CSE index with 25% of daily trading volume. Having a market capitalisation of over DR1,000 billion, it should rank as the fourth largest bank on the Athens stock market.