Voluntary retirement scheme from Kedipes (updated)

State-owned asset management company Kedipes announced a voluntary retirement scheme on Friday in a bid to cut the number of staff.

The scheme will come into force next Thursday and will run for a month.

The VRS provides for maximum tax-free compensation of €180,000 and minimum €35,000, depending on the years of service and revenues.

In addition, staff who opt to leave will continue to collect life insurance benefits equal to 60 gross monthly salaries and will continue to participate in the health and provident funds for two years after departure or until they find employment elsewhere.

All permanent Kedipes staff, including those transferred to Altamira real estate management firm, are eligible.

Staff who transferred to Altamira from the former cooperative central bank in 2018 will be given three options:

Remain at the firm and accept tax-free compensation between €35,000 and €65,000 and relinquish the right to return to Kedipes; return to Kedipes and take the VRS; and return to Kedipes at a position that will depend on existing needs.

Following the end of the VRS on October 31, all rights afforded to staff transferred to Altamira in 2018, including the right to return to Kedipes, will be terminated.

Kedipes wants to shed between 100 and 130 jobs through the VRS. The company currently employs 390 people while past studies showed that existing and future staff needs should not exceed 260.

Kedipes was set up in 2018 as the residual entity of the former state-owned Cyprus cooperative bank whose performing part was sold to Hellenic Bank, assisted by €3.5bn in state cash.

Kedipes must repay the state aid by winding down the co-ops non-performing loans.

Since September 2018 Kedipes has paid the state €400m and is in the process of providing the state with properties amounting to €140m.