Issue 61 pages 1 11

Goldt h e b u s i n e s s m a g a z i n e o f c y p r u s

ISSUE 61 aprIl 17, 2016prICE €3.00

5 291295 000577

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Brothers in Arms

John hourican and Bert PiJls The dynamic

duo of the Cyprus banking sector

34 | GOLD | The Business Magazine of Cyprus

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| COVER STORY |

BROTHERSIN ARMS

BERT PIJLSBefore being appointed CEO of Hellenic Bank in

November 2014, Bert Pijls was Managing Director,

Customer Services & Commercial of British Gas

(2012-2014), Managing Director, EMEA Consumer

Business Development & Re-engineering at

Citigroup (2011-2012) and CEO of Egg Banking plc

(2008-2011).

Before being appointed as Group CEO of Bank of Cyprus in October 2013, John Hourican served as

Chief Executive of the RBS Group’s Investment Bank (Markets & International Banking) (2008-2013). In 2007-2008, he was Chief

AMRO Group.

By John Vickers | Photography by Jo Michaelides

JOHN HOURICAN AND BERT PIJLS

The dynamic duo of the Cyprus

banking sector

In October 2013, the Independent Commission on the Future of the Cyprus Banking Sector published its final report, which began: “Over the last three years, the Cyprus banking system has suffered a series of disasters which have transformed what was once a large and prosperous industry into a national ca-tastrophe.”

It went on to note that “urgent work is now underway to repair the dam-age, much of it under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached by Cyprus with the Troika of the EU, the ECB and the IMF as a condition for a €10bn loan in March 2013,” describing how the country’s two largest banks had been merged and recapitalised, the co-op-erative sector had been restructured with an emergency capital injection of €1.5 billion, and what it called “important improvements” were being made to the country’s supervisory system. The report found that the Cyprus banks’ downfall was caused by the in-

terplay of a number of factors and failures, some of them outside Cyprus’ control, but many within it. The most significant internal cause was identi-fied as “a failure at the national policy level to appreciate that running a big banking industry involves risk as well as reward. The public attitude was that the banks were doing a good job of supporting economic growth and that the international business they brought added to the nation’s wealth. Insufficient attention was paid to the fact that the banks were acting im-prudently and that the international business was resulting in serious do-mestic imbalances, or to how any potential shocks might be handled.”Into this bleak recession landscape, two experienced non-Cypriot Chief

Executive Officers were brought in order to restore confidence and stability to the two leading banks and to resolve the many internal issues that had led to the 2013 meltdown. In separate exclusive interviews on the follow-ing pages, John Hourican, CEO, Bank of Cyprus, and Bert Pijls, CEO, Hellenic Bank, reveal the challenges that faced them when they took up their new posts, their progress to date, their priorities for 2016, how they are dealing with the non-performing loans problem, banking in the digital era, the prospects that the reunification of the island will bring, and more.

JOHN HOURICAN

T H E B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E O F C Y P R U S

I S S U E 6 1 A P R I L 1 7 , 2 0 1 6

C O N T E N T S6 | EDITORIAL 8 | BUSINESS BRIEFINGEconomic & Business Highlights of the past month. 12 | MY WAY Alex Hooft van Huysduynen’s management style.

14 | FIVE MINUTES WITH… Martin Schulz

16 | THEY SAID WHAT?This month’s memorable utterances by Cypriots in the public eye.

OPINION22 | STRONGER, SAFER AND BETTER OFFBy Ric Todd

48 | PHARMACEUTICALS MANAGEMENT By Kyriakos Mikellis

FEATURES18 | A GREAT AND COMPLEX PLACEInterview with US Ambassador Kathleen Doherty

24 | CRIMINAL MINDSConstantinos Constantinides on what the Constanteion Criminology and Forensic Sciences Research Centre has achieved.

42 | KEEPING EVERYTHING ABOVE BOARDSimon Walker, Director General of the Institute of Directors, on his work and the multiple challenges facing business around the world.

45 | SHIPPING INDUSTRY GALA Details of the May 17 event.

46 | HOW TO LEAD IN HIGH TURBULENCE

49 | INTERNATIONAL FUNDS SUMMITMeeting on “Bridging the Gap Between Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia”.

COVER STORY

28 | Brothers in Arms

Hellenic Bank, reveal the challenges that faced them when they took up their new posts, their progress to date, their priorities for

2016, banking in the digital era, the prospects that the

bring and more.

IS IN THE AIR

1886

50 | THE 6TH NICOSIA ECONOMIC CONGRESSLooking ahead to the

event in the capital.

82 | A NEW CHAPTER BEGINSGregory Dellas explains the purpose of the newly founded ACAMS Cyprus Chapter.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING

SUPPLEMENT 151 | Companies Involved

in the Investment Funds SectorFourteen companies

present their products and services in detail.

42

92

92 | LUNCH WITH GOLD

MTN Cyprus Ltd

95 | WHAT’S ONGold’s guide to the best cultural events of the coming month.

98 | A DAY IN THE LIFEEleana Spyris

86 | LOVE IS IN THE AIRMaria Christodoulou on how her Selective Matches service

partner.

88 | MY COLLECTIONAngelos Tsirides and the world of fossils.

91 | BOOKSHELFFive of the best new business titles.

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| EDITORIAL |

John Vickers,Chief Editor

[email protected]

A Time for Heroes

ver the last three years, the Cyprus banking system has suffered a series of disasters which have transformed what was once a large and prosperous industry into a national catastrophe.”So began the final report by the Independent Commission on the Future of the Cyprus Banking Sector, published in October 2013, six months after the €10 billion bailout of the economy, the resolution (i.e. closing down) of the country’s second largest bank, a bail-in of

its deposits and those of Bank of Cyprus customers, and a two-week period when all the island’s banks remained closed. Three years on, not a day goes by without a mention in the media of the 2013 crisis, whether it be in relation to ongoing investigations into the causes of the banking sector collapse, the continuing trial of senior Bank of Cyprus officials, dis-cussions in the House of Representatives, efforts to bring others to justice and demonstra-tions by those who lost their savings. By any standards, it was a bad time for everyone.

No-one has yet made a movie based on Cyprus’ 2013 experience but, if it ever happens, you can be sure that two of the heroes arriving on the scene in the nick of time to save the day will be the men on this issue’s cover: John Hourican and Bert Pijls. They may not resemble super-heroes or even traditional Wild West heroes but saviours they surely are. These two shrewdly appointed foreigners (from Ireland and the Netherlands respectively) have quietly made their mark on their banks (Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank), bring-ing them back from the brink of disaster and transforming them into healthy financial institutions with steadily improving reputations.

Messrs. Hourican and Pijls have proved quite elusive to Gold since their arrival but I’m delighted that we finally persuaded them to respond to questions in the two interviews that make up this month’s cover story (page 28). I believe you will find their answers revealing and extremely interesting.

This month we also spoke to Kathleen Doherty, the recently-appointed American Am-bassador to Cyprus (page 18), Simon Walker, Director General of the Institute of Directors (page 42), Constantinos Constantinides, Head of Research at the Constanteion Crim-inology and Forensic Sciences Research Centre (page 24), and Gregory Dellas, Chair of the newly established Cyprus Chapter of ACAMS (page 82). Add to this a fascinat-ing article by Tawfik Jelassi, the Tunisian Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Information & Communication Technologies during the transitional technocratic government in 2014-2015 following the Arab Spring revolution, plus all our usual features and more, and I am sure you will find this issue of Gold one of our best yet. Happy Easter!

MANAGING DIRECTOR George Michail

GENERAL MANAGER Daphne Roditou Tang

MEDIA MANAGERElena Leontiou

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Vickers

JOURNALISTSArtemis Constantinidou, Voula Loizou

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE Tina Adamidou, Amalia Hadjipapa,

Tawfik Jelassi, Kyriakos Mikellis, Andrestinos Papadopoulos, Ric Todd

PHOTOGRAPHYEmma Louise Charalambous,

Jo Michaelides, Andreas Loucaides

ART DIRECTION Anna Theodosiou

SENIOR DESIGNERAlexia Petrou

ASSISTANT DESIGNERStephanie AndreouPHOTOGRAPHY

Jo Michaelides, Harris Kyprianou MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Kevi ChishiosSALES MANAGER

Irene GeorgiouSALES EXECUTIVE Stavros Epifaniou

OPERATIONS MANAGER Voulla NicolaouSUBSCRIPTIONSMyria Neophytou

PRINTERS Cassoulides Masterprinters

CONTACT5 Aigaleo St., Strovolos 2057, Nicosia, Cyprus

Mailing address: P.O.Box 21185, 1503, Nicosia, Cyprus

Tel: +357 22505555, Fax: +357 22679820e-mail: [email protected]

subscriptions: [email protected]

ISSN 1986 - 3543PUBLISHED BY IMH

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GOLDT H E B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E O F C Y P R U S

ISSUE 61 APRIL 17, 2016PRICE €3.00

5 291295 000577

0 0 0 0 1 >

BROTHERS IN ARMS

JOHN HOURICAN AND BERT PIJLS The dynamic

duo of the Cyprus banking sector

“


Third round for oil and gas drilling bids

-

BUSINESSBRIEFING

ENERGY

AWARDCYPRIOT LAWYER WINS EU PRIZE FOR LITERATURELimassol lawyer Antonis Georgiou was among the 12 winners of the European Union Prize for Literature, announced on April 5 by Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. Georgiou, author of the book An Album of Stories, was named as one of the year’s emerging authors. Although Georgiou studied law, he also holds an MA in theatre studies and has written a number of short stories, poems and plays. Each winner of the European Union Prize for Literature receives €5,000

from extra promotion and international visi-bility at Europe’s major book fairs, including Frankfurt, London and Paris.

EgyptAir flight hijacked to LarnacaCyprus was on the world’s front pages last month, following a hijacking that diverted a domes-tic Egyptian flight to Cyprus. EgyptAir fight MS181, carrying 72 passengers and crew, was taken over by Seif Eldin Musta-fa, who appeared to be wearing a suicide explosive belt, soon after taking off from Alexandria. The belt later proved to be fake. Everyone on board was eventually freed unharmed and the hijacker’s motives remained unclear – he claimed that he wanted to see his ex-wife and children in Cyprus but also made demands about freeing female prisoners in Egypt. On 6 April, the Ministry of Justice approved an order to extradite the hijacker back to Egypt.

IN THE NEWS

Egy

IN THE NEWS

www.goldnews.com.cy | GOLD | 9

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FORD tops car registrations so far

T he automotive industry in Cy-prus continues to show an upward

trend in sales. During the first two months of 2016, Ford recorded the highest car sales in Cyprus with 366 registrations, while Nissan came second (291), followed by Kia (270), Toyota (226) and Volkswagen (145) reg-istrations. Pilakoutas Group, which imports Nissan, BMW, Land Rover and Mini, remains the leader for car sales in Cyprus with 504 sales, while Michaels Auto-motive, Ford representative in Cyprus, is second with 366 registrations.

TOURISM revenue rises 2.5% in January

R evenue from tourism rose by 2.5% in January, to €29.1million.

While the number of tourists who visited Cyprus in Jan-uary rose by 16%, the more modest increase in revenue was due to a shorter time spent here, combined with a drop in average spending per visitor. The average length of stay in January was 9.9 days compared to 11.4% in January 2015. On average, every tourist spent €598.39 in the first month of the year, a 12% drop compared to 2015.

ARISTO DEVELOPERS OPENS EGYPT OFFICE

Aristo Developers established a new

-

further enable us to position ourselves as a leader in

-

REAL ESTATE

SHOP HOURS FREE-FOR-ALL

Two court decisions last month on shop opening hours have resulted in total liberalization of the market, leaving stores of all types and sizes to im-plement their own timeta-bles. The Nicosia district court ruled recently that

the law preventing supermarkets from opening on Sun-days was unconstitutional, according to a previous Su-preme Court ruling, according to which the House of Representatives had no jurisdiction over the issue. The House, nonetheless, passed a new law, which President Anastasiades then appealed. The Supreme Court even-tually dismissed the appeal on a technicality because it had not been filed on time, leaving the supermarkets, large stores and many consumers happy that they can now shop seven days a week.

STATISTICS


BUSINESSBRIEFING

DESPINA PANAYIOTOU THEODOSSIOU

The Limassol-based Tototheo Group, a leading provider of satellite communi-

cations for the global shipping industry, has announced the appointment of Despina Panayiotou Theodossiou as joint Managing Director. In addition to her new duties, she remains responsible for the Corporate Strat-egy, Finance and Commercial matters.

ANDREAS MICHAELIDES

Alpha Bank Cyprus Ltd’s Board of Di-rectors unanimously elected Andreas

Michaelides as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alpha Bank Cyprus Ltd. In March, following the resignation of Spyros Filaretos. Andreas Michaelides has a long career in the accounting, auditing and fi-nance sectors.

NEW TO CYPRUS

Alpha TV Cyprus-

the new channel as “perhaps the -

Jamie’s Italian

-ian restaurant group is one of the

and all at a

Apple Store -

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products both in Cyprus

Endometriosis Centre Cyprus

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GOVERNMENT TO INTRODUCE E-PETITIONS

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CYPRUS INSTITUTE LAUNCHES LINEAR FRESNEL SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM

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TECHNOLOGY

THIS IS THE NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE IN CYPRUS IN MARCH 2016. WHEN THE FIGURE IS SEASONALLY ADJUSTED,

IT FALLS TO 40,079, WHICH IS 11% BELOW THE RESPECTIVE 2015 FIGURE, ACCORDING TO CYSAT. THE FALL IN THE NUMBER

OF REGISTERED UNEMPLOYED IN MARCH IS MAINLY DUE TO A DROP IN THE NUMBER OF JOBLESS PEOPLE IN THE

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND SERVICES SECTOR, WHOSE NUMBERS DECREASED BY 1,153 AND 785 RESPECTIVELY

COMPARED TO MARCH 2015.

APPOINT-MENTS

www.goldnews.com.cy | GOLD | 11

tel: +30 210 4294 404 [email protected] www.register-iri.com

IRI Hellas Ltd.

JURISDICTIONOF CHOICE

THE MARSHALL ISLANDSCorporate Registry

ELLINAIR TO START LARNACA-THESSALONIKI FLIGHTS

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LARNACA-TEHRAN FROM COBALTAIR

BA DOUBLES SUMMER FLIGHTS TO HEATHROW

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TUS RESUMES OPERATIONS

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AVIATION

LAL RNA

UMMER

ÖL SHIPPING GROUP

ZAHA HADID

PGS LIGHTING ELECTRICAL

th

lighting solutions and specialises

UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS AMONG WORLD’S BEST

education providers on two separate

th on the list of the

MILESTONES

Issue 61 pages 1 11

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