The Bank of Cyprus on Tuesday announced the allotment of 317,817 new shares to members of its general management as part of its long-term and short-term incentive plans.

The shares have a nominal value of €0.10 each and were originally issued on March 31, 2025.

They are set to be admitted to trading on the Main Market of both the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) and the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX).

According to the official information document, this move does not require the publication of a prospectus, as the new shares are of the same class as those already listed on the same regulated markets.

The document clarifies that it is not a prospectus and has not been approved by any supervisory authority, including the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission.

The 317,817 shares were issued under the bank’s 2022 Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) and the Short-Term Incentive Plan (STIP).

Of these, 28,564 shares were allotted to three members of general management under the STIP for the year 2023.

The remaining 289,253 shares were issued to twenty members of general management under the 2022 LTIP covering the period from 2022 to 2024.

The LTIP was approved at the company’s annual general meeting on May 20, 2022, and formally adopted by the board of directors on December 16, 2022.

It is designed to reward executives for contributing to the bank’s strategic and financial goals, ensuring long-term sustainability and aligning management interests with those of shareholders.

The plan will run for ten years and will not exceed five per cent of the company’s issued share capital.

Eligible beneficiaries include executive directors and senior managers of the bank and its subsidiaries.

Performance under the LTIP is measured over a three-year period against both financial and non-financial targets such as profitability, asset quality, capital adequacy, risk management, compliance, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

According to the relevant document, awards under the LTIP are made solely at the board’s discretion and are provided in the form of ordinary shares. There is no obligation to continue awards in subsequent years.

Shares granted under the LTIP vest over five years and are subject to a retention period of at least twelve months.

The STIP was approved by the board on March 31, 2023, and ratified at the annual general meeting on May 26, 2023, where amendments were made to the remuneration policy to allow executive directors to participate.

A further amendment to permit awards in shares was approved at the annual general meeting on May 17, 2024.

The STIP is implemented annually and primarily provides cash payments, though regulatory rules stipulate that at least 50 per cent of awards exceeding a certain threshold must be paid in shares.

These shares also follow a five-year vesting cycle and a twelve-month retention period.

The new shares issued under both plans will carry identical rights to existing shares, including voting rights, dividend entitlements, pre-emption rights in future offerings, and rights in the event of liquidation.

The company stated that there are no restrictions on the free transferability of the new shares once the retention period has ended.

The shares will be registered with the Central Securities Depository of the CSE and credited to the beneficiaries’ accounts at the dematerialised securities system.

Trading will begin once the CSE confirms that the electronic shareholder registry meets all required regulatory conditions.

Following this issue, the share capital of Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company now stands at €44,082,006, divided into 440,820,060 shares of €0.10 nominal value each.