Cyprus Mail www.cyprus-mail.com
Friday, December 28, 2012
€1
CYPRUS
SPORT
FILM
Christofias: history will vindicate me
Title race not finished yet, says City keeper back
Cloud Atlas opens on big screens today centre
6
Suppliers told to ‘take it or leave it’ Last-ditch plan to save failed Orphanides supermarkets, says KEVE chief By Elias Hazou
A
FINALISED ‘take it or leave it’ rescue plan for Orphanides Supermarkets is to be put to suppliers sometime in the next few days, and its rejection could spell the demise of the debt-ridden company. A draft of the plan, drawn up by the company’s external auditors KPMG, was yesterday presented to the chain’s suppliers and to representatives of the Bank of Cyprus. KPMG’s sustainability report is said to envisage the continued operation of the company for one to two months, by which time it should become apparent whether an “administrative restructuring” can keep the chain afloat. Under the plan, priority would be given to repaying suppliers, with the rest of the revenues going toward paying salaries, the electric bill and other essential services. It’s also understood that the current owners would be excluded from decisionmaking. During yesterday’s meeting hosted at the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE), affected suppliers raised a number of queries and additional proposals. KPMG said it would take
these into consideration and formulate a final plan, to be put before suppliers and to the banks sometime over the next few days. According to Panayiotis Loizides, KEVE secretary general, the finalised draft would be of the “take it or leave it kind.” If the suppliers don’t go for it, then matters would take their course, he said, alluding to a winding up of the company. “The plan is a last-ditch bid to save the company,” added Loizides. Since the announcement that the chain was going into receivership, various proposals have been put on the table to keep the company running. The future looms uncertain as the company’s two main creditors, Popular Bank and the Bank of Cyprus collectively owed at least €140 million - rejected the appointment of an administrator to oversee a restructuring. Orphanides additionally owes €85 million to suppliers and €10 million to other creditors, and posted a loss of €17.7 million for the first three quarters of the year. The company’s largest commercial creditors then proposed that a strategic investor take over and, failing that, the chain would be placed in administration.
TURN TO PAGE 5
A man yesterday installs one of the panels of new Waterford crystal on to the giant ball that annually marks the new year over Times Square in New York City. Thousands gather in the square each year for the event (EPA)
Englishman wakes up after stroke and starts to speak Welsh AN Englishman has woken up after a stroke and started speaking Welsh. Alun Morgan, 81, was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War and during his time there he never picked up the native tongue. His wife Yvonne was the only person who could understand him and had to translate for doctors. Morgan, from Bathwick, Bath, Somerset, told the Bath Chronicle: “I don’t remember anything from the time of my stroke. “But gradually I started speaking a few words in Welsh.
“This was strange because I’d not lived in Wales since I was evacuated there during the war.” Doctors have diagnosed Morgan with aphasia, a form of brain damage that causes a shift in the brain’s language centre. The most common cause of aphasia is stroke, but gunshot wounds, blows to the head, other traumatic brain injuries and brain tumours can also cause aphasia. It can also result in a disorder known as Foreign Accent Syndrome, which causes a sudden change to speech so that a na-
tive speaker talks with a foreign accent. Researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome have suffered damage to tiny areas of the brain that affect speech. The result is often a drawing out or clipping of the vowels that mimic the accent of a particular country, such as Spain or France, even if the sufferer has limited exposure to that accent. The syndrome was first identified during the Second World War when a Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel damage to her brain and developed a strong German accent.