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acquisitions so

far

M&A deals surged to CYP 87 mln as the fourth quarter promised to be the best for mergers and acquisitions so far, the Financial Mirror reported in issue 589, on October 6, 2004, while in other news Stelios is expected to launch one of his first ‘easy’ brands and Turkey hopes to get the green light to start EU accession talks.

Mergers and

this year registered a sharp increase, surging to a total value of CYP 87.17 mln, well above the CYP 75 mln in agreed deals for the whole of 2003. With the fourth quarter just starting, M&As for the whole year may reach the CYP 105 mln in deals transacted in 2002, but below the record CYP 439 in 2000 at the height of the bull craze. Stelios visit: EasyGroup founder Stelios HajiIoannou is due in Cyprus to inaugurate the first outlet of his easyCar franchise in Limassol and also address an investment seminar hosted by the SFS Group.

The European Commission is expected to judge that Turkey has met the minimum requirements to start access negotiations with the EU, although it will leave the political question about exactly when they start to the European Council meeting of EU heads of government in December.

A Lufthansa jumbo Boeing 747 from Germany enroute to Israel was diverted to Larnaca after authorities received a bomb threat. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the plane and prevent it from entering Israeli airspace, angering Cyprus government officials by the forceful diversion of the flight and Israel’s violation of Cyprus airspace.

EU unemployment figures for August showed that the Cyprus rate of 4.5% was only half the 12-national Eurozone average of 9%, which, together with Austria’s, was the third lowest after Luxembourg (4.3%) and Ireland (4.4%).