Kedipes reports record inflows of €439 mln for 2022

State-owned Cyprus Asset Management Company (Kedipes) on Wednesday reported record cash inflows of €439 million for 2022, as well as a state aid repayment amount of €310 million, since the company’s creation in 2018.

However, during the press conference held to report the results, Kedipes board chairman Lambros Papadopoulos noted that foreclosure suspensions have started to have an effect on the company’s operations.

“As we have previously warned, the continuous suspensions of foreclosures have now begun to affect us, with expected negative effects on the solutions we can provide, as well as our cash inflows, during the first quarter of 2023,” he said.

In this context, Papadopoulos welcomed the House’s decision to not extend the postponement of foreclosures and expressed the hope that “the problem of continuous foreclosure suspensions will be resolved with a comprehensive final, and above all, operational solution”.

He also said that he hopes that the regulatory and supervisory framework, including foreclosures, can function properly so that Kedipes can effectively handle cases involving non-cooperative debtors and strategic defaulters, something which he described as important to the company’s scope of operations.

What is more, according to Papadopoulos, the cumulative restructuring solutions that have been agreed upon so far amount to €1.3 billion.

In addition, the total repayment of state aid in cash since the beginning of the company’s operations amounts to €880 million, which corresponds to 25 per cent of the aid put forth by the state to facilitate the sale of the serviced part of the former Cyprus Cooperative Bank to Hellenic Bank.

Moreover, Papadopoulos said that properties with a total value of €140 million will be transferred to the state

According to the results, cash inflows amounted to €114.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, marking an increase of 22.5 per cent compared to the previous quarter, and were similar to inflows recorded during the corresponding period of 2021.

Cumulative inflows from the start of Kedipes operation until the end of 2022 amounted to €1.66 billion, marking an increase of €439 million compared to the end of 2021, while the deleveraging of assets amounted to €2.67 billion. At the same time, real estate sales amounted to €582 million.

The total assets of Kedipes at the end of 2022 fell to €5.55 billion, excluding interest on loans that have not been recovered or written off, with the total deleveraging since the beginning of the operation standing at 32 per cent.

Furthermore, Kedipes’ total expenses amounted to €476 million, of which 34 per cent refers to other expenses, 31.1 per cent to the expenses of the administrator company (Altamira), 15 per cent to expenses of asset management to non-government services, 11 per cent in value-added tax and 8.1 per cent in asset management costs to government agencies.

Additionally, the company noted that total staff costs at the end of December 2022 amounted to €76.8 million.

Meanwhile, Kedipes financial director Lambros Papalambrianou said that the company’s challenges are now purely related to the operational part, including interventions in the context of sales, managing the rent-for-instalment scheme, as well as the uncertainty in the financial environment due to high inflation and the increase in interest rates by the ECB.