Cash flows at Kedipes – a state-owned asset management company – during the third quarter of this year were similar to those in the respective quarter of 2022, the outfit said on Tuesday.

The figures were cited at a news conference where Kedipes board chairman Lambros Papadopoulos presented the company’s latest financials.

Cash flows in the third quarter of 2023 came to €94 million – similar to the number recorded for the same quarter last year.

However, they were markedly down on the cash flows of the second quarter of 2023 – which stood at €111 million.

To date, cumulative cash flows amount to €2 billion – corresponding to about 40 per cent of the long-term target set by Kedipes.

Papadopoulos said that during 2023, €1.08 billion was paid back to the state. Total repayments by the end of the year are projected at €1.3 billion, on completion of the transfer to the state of real estate owned by the former co-operative banks.

The Kedipes chairman also announced a new voluntary exit plan for employees, part of a cost-cutting drive. The goal is to save anywhere from €2 million to €3 million a year on wages, which account for up to 15 per cent of the entity’s labour costs.

The exit plan will remain open for five months.

Kedipes began operations in September 2018. It is the residual entity following the acquisition of the state-owned Cyprus Cooperative Bank’s performing loan book by Hellenic Bank. The state-owned asset management company is mandated to manage the co-operative bank’s portfolio, consisting mainly of non-performing loans, with a view to repay the €3.5 billion the state had paid in a bid to facilitate the transaction with Hellenic.